Editor’s View: Truth be told, this is more of a PR movement than anything else. Ask anyone who’s been at CES and they’ll tell you that Day 4 of the show is largely a formality. It is not uncommon to find a lot of empty stalls on the last day, and many are actively packing their bags at home. In all fairness, CES probably should have been reduced to three days ago.

Fold but don’t break. That’s the catchphrase of CES 2022 as several large companies scrap their personal plans for next week’s event in Las Vegas, leaving organizers scrambling to try to salvage the show.

Over the past week, CES has already lost several major exhibitors, including Lenovo, Intel, AMD, MSI, OnePlus, IBM, Microsoft, Pinterest, Amazon, Google, Meta, Twitter and others. Gary Shapiro, CTA president and CEO, said in a Dec. 25 article for the Las Vegas Review-Journal that CES will and must continue, criticizing the press and other critics who “don’t tell the story.” Drama and big business.

Now a week has passed and the tune has changed a bit.

On December 31, the CTA announced that it would end CES 2022 the day before. The in-person event is now scheduled for January 5-7, 2022 in Las Vegas, with January 3-4 being designed as media days. The association said the move was taken as an additional safety measure in addition to existing health protocols already in place for the fair.