What you need to know
- OnePlus, AMD, and MSI have dropped their plans to attend CES 2022 in person.
- AMD stated that it is shifting to virtual exhibits in order to protect the health of its staff and partners.
- The event's organizers remain steadfast to hold the trade show in January.
The list of companies canceling their in-person CES 2022 attendance continues to add new major vendors. OnePlus, AMD, and MSI have joined the growing CES exodus due to the increasing Omicron variant infections.
As per CNET, AMD is pivoting to a virtual experience to keep its employees and partners safe from the new COVID-19 variant. "After careful deliberation, AMD has decided to cancel our in-person presence at CES 2022 in Las Vegas and will instead transition to a virtual experience," the semiconductor company said.
AMD previously announced that its 2022 Product Premiere event on January 4 will be online-only, which will highlight its upcoming Ryzen processors and Radeon graphics. "While the AMD 2022 Product Premiere was always planned as a digital-only livestream, our in-person engagements will now transition to virtual in the best interest of the health and safety of our employees, partners and communities," AMD added.
MSI also stated in a press release that its decision to cancel physical attendance at CES was motivated by the growing number of Omicron cases in the United States. Instead, it will showcase its upcoming products through online events such as the MSI-Gameverse on January 4 and the MSI-Verse on January 5.
OnePlus cofounder and CEO Pete Lau previously hinted at a January launch for the upcoming OnePlus 10 Pro, the company's next challenger to the best Android phones. This prompted some to speculate that the flagship phone would be unveiled at CES 2022. That does not appear to be the case any longer.
These companies are the latest exhibitors to pull out of the upcoming event. More recently, Google and Waymo dropped their in-person CES plan over health safety concerns, following in the footsteps of other major vendors such as Amazon, T-Mobile, Meta, Twitter, and Microsoft.
Nonetheless, the Consumer Technology Association, the event's organizer, shows no signs of withdrawal. CTA is confident that the health and safety precautions in place will protect CES attendees.
