2012 Is Microsoft’s Last CES Exhibition [After 2012's CES Show, You Won't See Microsoft At The Big Show Again, Citing A Need To Change How It Communicates With Its Customers]

Posted on TFTS by Steve Anderson on Wednesday, 21. December 2011 under: Computers & Computing, Net Resources, PCs, Notebooks, Netbooks & Tablets

A bit of a shocker emerges as word comes out of Microsoft saying that, after 2012, you won’t see a Microsoft presence at the Consumer Electronics Show again. No more booths, no more keynotes, and likely little more than a background presence will remain.

It’s somewhat ironic, and very unexpected, to hear this, especially when you consider that Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer will be delivering the keynote address at the 2012 CES event, and the reasons behind Microsoft’s departure are unusual, but make quite a bit of sense.

Frank X. Shaw, vice president of corporate communications, ran down the details of what drove Microsoft out in a blog post, saying that, while they’ll still participate in CES, you won’t be able to tell it near so much as they’ll have neither a booth nor a keynote address. But most of Microsoft’s product announcements and other such “news milestones,” as he called them, really don’t show up in January. And as such, Microsoft’s looking to hold its own events to announce its new products, thus reducing the need to get involved on one big show, as well as put more of an emphasis on contact through Facebook, Twitter, its website and its network of retail stores.

Considering that Microsoft has had a relationship with the Consumer Electronics Association, the company behind the CES event, for nearly two decades, this is a big step for the company. And admittedly, continuous marketing through the methods Shaw discusses is likely to be more effective at building and keeping brand recognition than one big shot in the start of the year. But still, this is a big change in the natural order of things, and the shakeup is likely to have wide-ranging effects. How long before no major brands show up at CES and instead focus on launching their own miniature shows throughout the year?

But what do you guys think about this one? Think that we may be looking at the beginning of the end for the annual CES event? Or are we simply looking at a couple big names jumping ship to run their own show? No matter what your opinion on this, we always like hearing from you, so head on down to the comments section and tell us what you think about Microsoft’s (mostly) departure from the CES!