I’ve been receiving quite a number of emails from people asking whether VIA will be exhibiting at CeBIT this year. The answer is that for the first time in over a decade we have decided to give the show a miss.

There are a number of reasons why we have made this decision, the most important being that the costs of exhibiting there can no longer be justified given the shrinkage in the number of players (and hence potential customers) in the European PC market. It hasn’t helped either that quite a number of major exhibitors have pulled out of the show over the past two or three years, making it much less attractive to potential visitors than it used to be.

I can’t say that I’ll be too sorry to miss the CeBIT myself. Of all the shows on the IT calendar, it has always been the longest (eight days at one stage!) and the most grueling. Time to try something different.