Editor's take: Truth be told, this is more of a PR move than anything. Ask anyone that's been to CES and they'll tell you that day four of the show is largely a formality. It's not uncommon to find lots of empty booths on the final day, and several others actively packing up shop to head home. In all honesty, CES probably should have been cut down to three days years ago.
Bend but don't break. That's the mantra of the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show as multiple major companies have canceled in-person plans for next week's event in Las Vegas, leaving organizers scrambling to try and save the show.
CES over the past week has already lost several key exhibitors including Lenovo, Intel, AMD, MSI, OnePlus and IBM, Microsoft, Pinterest, Amazon, Google, Meta and Twitter, among others. CTA president and CEO Gary Shapiro said in a December 25 piece for the Las Vegas Review-Journal that CES will and must go on, and blasted press and other critics "who tell the story only through their lens of drama and big name companies."
It's now a week later and the tune has changed a bit.
The CTA on December 31 said it will end CES 2022 one day early. The in-person event is now scheduled for January 5-7, 2022, in Las Vegas, with January 3-4 designed as media days. The association said the step was taken as an additional safety measure on top of existing health protocols already in place for the show.