Micro-Star International Co (MSI, 微星科技) yesterday said it has canceled plans to attend next month’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada, possibly making it the first Taiwanese firm to pull out of physically attending the annual event due to concern over COVID-19.
MSI became the latest company to join several global brands in scrapping plans to attend the CES show as the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 rapidly spreads throughout the US.
Earlier, Google, Intel Corp, General Motors Co, Amazon.com Inc, Meta Platforms Inc, Twitter Inc, Pinterest Inc, Lenovo Group Inc (聯想) and AT&T Inc announced that they had canceled attending the show in person.
Photo courtesy of Micro-Star International Co
CES, which is to be held from Wednesday to Saturday next week, is the first global tech event after Christmas.
“Since December, the rapidly spreading Omicron variant has led to a surge of COVID-19 cases in the US. The health and well-being of our employees, customers and fans are our top priority,” MSI marketing vice president Sam Chern (程惠正) said in a news release. “Hence, we have decided not to participate in person at CES 2022 and will join the show virtually with our online product launch.”
MSI, which makes gaming computers, graphics cards and motherboards, said that its lineup of products for next year would be showcased online.
The company plans to hold two virtual events — MSI Gamerverse on Tuesday next week and MSI-VERSE the following day — to introduce its new gaming, content creation, business and productivity lineups, along with new peripherals and components for next year, the release said.
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