Microsoft to End Participation in CES Keynotes After 2012
Dec 21, 2011 9:33 am PST by Eric Slivka
Following Apple's lead in pulling out of Macworld Expo several years ago, Microsoft today announced that next month's keynote presentation at CES in Las Vegas will be the company's last at the major consumer electronics show.

In its announcement, Microsoft cites many of the same factors addressed by Apple as reasons for its ending of trade show participation. Most notably, trade shows have become less relevant for new product announcements given the increasing connectedness and interactivity offered by the Internet and social media, and in many cases the scheduled nature of trade shows imposes undesired rigidity on timeframes for new product announcements.
Our industry moves fast and changes faster. And so the way we communicate with our customers must change in equally speedy ways. To ensure it does, we constantly challenge our assumptions. For example:

- What’s the right time and place to make announcements?
- Are we adjusting to the changing dynamics of our customers?
- Are we doing something because it’s the right thing to do, or because “it’s the way we’ve always done it”?

Microsoft points to its own media and developer events, social media tools, and even its retail stores as venues for connecting with customers that provide better opportunities than trade show keynotes.

Microsoft will maintain a presence at CES going forward with its employees attending the event, but the company will no longer participate in the opening keynote as it has routinely done, and will not sponsor a booth on the exhibition floor after 2012.

Microsoft will hand out $100 to CES 2012 attendees who are able to beat the speed of Windows Phone. Ben Rudolph, Microsoft's phone and PC guy, is running the contest from the software makers' booth at CES. The challenge is simple, beat a Windows Phone feature with a rival device. Microsoft has created a number of challenges, including taking, tagging, posting pictures to Facebook, and posting status updates to multiple social networks. To win $100 all people have to do is simply beat Windows Phone with any other cellphone.

Rudolph is calling the challenge "smoked by Windows Phone", and contestants might get the chance to win a Windows Phone in the process. Microsoft's latest marketing effort is designed to drive awareness for the platform, Rudolph admitted to us on Monday, something that Windows Phone lacks despite being over a year ago. Rudolph's not concerned if hardcore Android fans turn up with tweaked devices to beat the challenge though, challengers will only be able to pick one of 10 scenarios to go head-to-head with Windows Phone. The challenge kicks off at 2pm (PT) today and we'll be watching closely to see just how many people manage to snag $100.

Monster will no longer make Beats headphones
By Dieter Bohn on January 12, 2012 07:09 pm 86COMMENTS

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Beats audio has become a pretty familiar brand around these parts: in addition to the ubiquitous headphones, the company has licensed its brand to HP and is majority owned by HTC — both of which manufacture an increasing number of Beats-branded products. Regardless, it's the headphones that built the brand, and the future of who will be manufacturing them is a little more cloudy today as Beats and Monster will not be renewing their contract. Sources told Business Week that the split happened because of a disagreement over (what else?) money and credit, with each company believing it deserved more of both.

Monster, for its part, is going to move ahead and attempt to (re)build a headphone empire based on the Monster brand. That's the short term plan. The long term plan isn't clear but one fairly obvious move would be to merge with or buy out SOL Republic, a headphone company founded by Kevin Lee who happens to be son of Monster founder Noel Lee. Lee the younger, despite running his competing headphone brand, has said that he would be "honored' to take over the leading role of Monster someday, adding "Cut me open, I’m a monster and will always be a monster." Given Monster's mixed brand image (especially amongst anybody who know about cables), a partnership with SOL Republic would make a lot of sense.

Beats also has a murky future. The company will surely continue to license its brand out, but who will make headphones is unclear. It just so happens to be majority owned by HTC and HTC just so happens to be a manufacturer of consumer electronics. Even if HTC and Beats don't decide to go down that road, you can be sure that given the amount of money and marketshare that Beats has managed to snatch up, they'll find a way to ensure that there are many many more Beats-branded headphones to come.

Don't call them "ultrabooks" — Vizio says they're thin-and-lights that meet or exceed Intel's ultrabook specs, but the company isn't using the name. Whatever they are, they're certainly thin, and that keyboard is something else. Vizio CTO Matt McRae told us the company is doing extensive testing on it to make sure it's comfortable, and we found it easy enough to type on, although the individual keys felt sort of huge. The build itself is nice and sturdy, with unibody construction, but Vizio won't tell us what processors or chipsets it's using inside — we're guessing it's Intel's Ivy Bridge. The 13-inch thin-and-light has a 1600 x 900 display, while the 15-inch has a 1920 x 1080 display — they're definitely nice and bright, and there's a neat display-off button on the keyboard so you can use shut it down while watching TV.

There's also a "full-size" laptop with discrete NVIDIA graphics — once again, the specific chip hasn't been announced so Vizio wasn't saying what it was, but they were quick to point out that even the full laptop is thinner than the MacBook Pro. Hitting that goal was undoubtedly easier since it doesn't have an optical drive — Vizio's selling a separate slot-loading Blu-ray drive.

The laptops are due out in May or June, and pricing is still to be determined.