CES comeback bid stymied after omicron spooks participants

CES bills itself as the most influential tech event in the world, and the 54-year-old gathering has debuted many of the biggest electronic products - from the VCR in 1970 to compact disc players in 1981 to Microsoft Corp’s Xbox in 2001. — AFP

Next week was meant to mark a key moment for the tech world, with executives from some of the biggest companies descending on CES in Las Vegas to hobnob, share strategies and remember what life was like before the pandemic.

Instead, most of them will be attending the event remotely - if at all. The annual gathering will soldier on in-person, but with just a diehard contingent venturing to Vegas. Companies like Amazon.com Inc, Alphabet Inc’s Google and Intel Corp scrapped plans to go, and many of the show’s presentations have shifted online. Tech news outlets also have dropped out.