“Panos Panay” is probably not an anagram for “ardour,” however at Microsoft, it was fairly darn shut.
Panos Panay, the chief product officer for Microsoft, unexpectedly stepped down on Tuesday, after serving practically twenty years on the firm. Panay rose to the ranks of chief product officer, overseeing the event of Home windows and its complementary Floor PC line. Apparently, Panay gave no particular cause for leaving, and at press time had solely posted a single message asserting his departure on Twitter/X.
Much more curiously, Panay had initially stated he would oversee the launch of Microsoft’s subsequent Floor units at an occasion this week, on Sept. 21. It’s not clear when Panay’s remaining day will probably be, but it surely’s virtually sure that he’ll hand off presentation duties to another person. In response to an inside memo that Microsoft made public, Mikhail Parakhin, who heads up Bing and Bing Chat, will oversee a brand new Home windows and Net Experiences staff. Floor seems to nonetheless be underneath the management of Pavan Duvuluri, the present basic supervisor of Floor and the top of Home windows Silicon and Techniques Integration. Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s client chief, will nonetheless deal with exterior OEM relationships and can in all probability oversee the Floor occasion.
So is Panay’s departure a optimistic or a destructive for Microsoft? It’s a chance, however one Microsoft in all probability gained’t take.
We spent appreciable time outlining the issues with Floor earlier this yr. To recap: Microsoft’s Floor {hardware} has develop into stale, simply recycling product after product with nary a change apart from the interior configuration and a tweak to the exterior ports. Opponents are main the best way. (To be truthful, these rivals complained vehemently when Microsoft first launched Floor, believing that Microsoft would train the unfair benefit of being intimately near its Home windows staff.) And, after all, we weren’t positive how Microsoft would design a PC for the AI age.
It seems that Microsoft is pushing the latter level onerous. By making Parakhin the Home windows chief, the position of AI turns into distinguished. It appears probably that Home windows Copilot, the AI-powered instrument that (let’s face it) is at the moment fairly dumb, will steadily enhance and start to take over increasingly inside Home windows itself.
Will Microsoft head in the precise path?
Recent blood is all the time an opportunity for enchancment and alter. However Microsoft doesn’t often change within the path we wish.
Panay and Mehdi are the 2 most distinguished client voices at Microsoft. One simply left. However Panay was all the time the person who was synonymous with new experiences, emphasizing the particular person as a lot because the product. His generally tearful displays showcased each his household in addition to the household of units that he launched to the world. Panay struck me as a person who believed strongly in what he did, and satisfied administration to attempt new issues, resembling all the numerous iterations of the Floor lineup.
Sadly, many weren’t profitable (Floor Neo, Floor Duo) or not clearly so (the Floor Laptop computer Go, amongst others), although there are actually loads of sturdy Floor hits. No matter success or failure, nevertheless, Floor units have all the time been impeccably designed, and thanks partly to Panay’s pumped-up product reveals, they all the time appeared to have coronary heart, a cause to exist. Panay was a passionate voice for the patron.
Mehdi has historically taken a safer, extra company method.
Now, Microsoft and Duvuluri might take this chance to revamp Floor: change its design, clean up its product classes. The place’s our Xbox gaming PC? We might have a contemporary, vibrant Microsoft, bringing a number of the enjoyable again. Why not a Steam Deck-like cell gaming PC, too?
Nah.
I think the alternative will occur: Microsoft will begin quietly trimming a number of the experimental Floor strains we’ve seen up to now, in all probability returning to some type of a Floor Professional/Floor Laptop computer duopoly, with some third system (both a Floor Go or subsequent Floor Laptop computer Studio iterations) for creatives. That’s it.
Microsoft’s quarterly earnings proceed to be dominated by the cloud, particularly Azure. The PC enterprise has all the time been a rocky street. Microsoft 365 subscriptions have taken off in recent times, and Microsoft desires to signal clients up for Microsoft 365 Copilot AI subscriptions, too, at a whopping $30 per person per 30 days. The message right here is that Microsoft desires you to join as many recurring subscriptions as your pockets will bear. Anticipate enterprise to be the main focus, not shoppers.
Panos Panay has (had?) a voice. A soul. Bing Chat as soon as did too, and Microsoft’s Parakhin killed it. It’s now only a bland AI assistant. Anyway, Microsoft is clearly extra serious about AI that helps companies make cash. And why not? That’s the place the cash really is, in spite of everything.
I feel we must always all ask the query: Did Panos depart as a result of he felt his work was finished? Or as a result of he believed that Microsoft wouldn’t have the ability to progress any additional? It’s robust to ask shoppers to imagine within the merchandise Microsoft will introduce this week when their champion has departed the sphere.
Bloomberg stories that Panay is headed to Amazon, to supervise its Alexa division and its associated units.
