Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs will give the opening keynote at the International CES to be held in January 8-11, 2013 in Las Vegas, Nevada. With mobile technology on the rise and becoming the focus now a days, it might be a logical choice over the attention of a Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer.
This will be the first since CES 1999 to open without a keynote from a Microsoft CEO. Ballmer has been the keynote addresser for the past four years, and Gates was the opening speaker for nine consecutive years before that.
Microsoft already announced that it would no longer attend, saying its big product announcements no longer lined up with the timing of the show. But many feel that the CES event was no longer a PC show, hence its no longer relevant for Microsoft to attend or more importantly to open the show.
While filling up the opening spot, it has been confirmed that Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs will deliver the 2013 International CES keynote address.
Initial speculations were that Sony, Samsung, or even a wireless operator such as Vodafone may get the opening spot. But yesterday the CEA picked Qualcomm, a company which makes microprocessors and wireless chips used in smartphones and tablets, as well as in many other products including automobiles. We feel that it is a good choice as the fact remains that Qualcomm is one of the biggest suppliers of ARM-based processors for mobile devices.
Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacob’s speech is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time on January 7 at The Venetian in Las Vegas. International CES 2013 will be kicking off the next day, but the preshow keynote address is seen as the opening event. Other keynoters that week are top executives from Panasonic, Samsung, and Verizon.
Source CES