Two big Chinese tech giants Xioami and Realme have now joined the list of other big technology brands who have announced to cancel their on-ground launch events over health concerns of coronavirus (COVID-19).
While the Xiaomi Redmi Note 9 was scheduled to launch in India on March 12, Realme was planning to launch the Realme 6 series devices on March 5. Both the events now stand cancelled and the companies will now launch them via online, respectively.
‘Due to recent reports of COVID-19 #CoronaOutbreak in certain parts of the country, we've decided to not host product launch events on-ground in March,’ tweeted Manu Kumar Jain, Xiaomi India MD.
‘This is keeping in mind safety of fans, media friends, employees & partners. I urge you all to stay safe,’ the tweet added.
????#Note the update: Due to recent reports of COVID-19 #CoronaOutbreak in certain parts of the country, we've decided to not host product launch events on-ground in March.
— Manu Kumar Jain (@manukumarjain) March 3, 2020
This is keeping in mind safety of fans, media friends, employees & partners. I urge you all to stay safe. ???? pic.twitter.com/SOdDZtSkmo
Xiaomi will not be holding any events throughout March in India.
Realme Mobiles CEO, Madhav Sheth also took to micro-blogging website to announced that that the company's March 5 event for the launch of Realme 6 and Realme 6 Pro now stands cancelled. The company will launch the device via a livestream through its official Realme India YouTube. For those who are interested in viewing the livestream, it will start at 12:30 p.m. on March 5.
In light of current reports of #coronavirus impact & related advisory by health officials to maintain social distance as a precautionary measure, I'm calling off our biggest event. Will still give live speech in stadium with you watching #realme6series event online. #HealthFirst
— Madhav 5G (@MadhavSheth1) March 3, 2020
‘As for fans who purchased tickets to the Realme 6 series launch event later this week, their tickets will be refunded alongside a special gesture of appreciation for fans,’ said Realme India CMO Francis Wang.
Google has also cancelled its I/O developer conference over the coronavirus outbreak. The conference was scheduled to take place between May 12 - 14. The cancellation of I/O event comes a day after Google scrapped its in-person Google Cloud Next conference that was due to take place from April 6 to 8. The company will now hold a digital version of the event on the same dates.
In February, Facebook called off its F8 developers' conference and will now hold a live stream of the event. The biggest mobile show – Mobile World Congress, known as MWC, was also cancelled last month.
