Panos Panay did not present at Microsoft’s recent Windows event in New York City—his departure from the titanic technology corporation was announced on September 18; so only three days before an official unveiling of new Surface products. Panay and his (now former) executive colleagues painted a positive picture regarding the move onto pastures new. News reports emerged about an alleged high level hiring by Amazon, with Panay overseeing Alexa and Echo divisions—replacing Dave Limp, SVP of Amazon Devices & Services. A Business Insider report suggests that Microsoft’s former chief product officer was unhappy about budget cuts affecting his Surface division—certain insiders were not surprised when Panay announced his retirement from the big M.
The transfer to Amazon was in the works for a while, according to cited inside sources—Microsoft reportedly implemented a round of major budget cuts and product cancellations that did not sit well with Panay. The Surface department experienced “significant” downscaling, and plans for next-generation Surface Headphones were jettisoned. Business Insider proposed that funds had been reassigned to more important internal ventures—mainly artificial intelligence. Many folks were looking forward to Panay taking the stage in NYC earlier this week, but Brett Ostrum (Corporate Vice President of Surface Devices) ultimately acted as his replacement—with a showcasing of the company’s latest portable Windows devices. Attendees were somewhat surprised to see Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella turn up as well—it is possible that he was added to the roster for “some extra firepower.”
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100% agree. Google has the same problem. They are like hyper 5 year olds chasing the next shiny ball that gets their attention and they forget about all the other cool toys they already have. Products take generations to get refined enough for non-early adopters to buy. But way too few products from these companies get a long enough life to get multiple generations
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They already have tons of products to stick AI in: Microsoft 365. You don’t put AI in hardware products, you integrate it in existing software. Microsoft was never an hardware company, despite having some hardware products. Most of them (Zune, the Nokia partnership, mice and keyboards) have failed
Edit: also XBox (the console) is failing - they sell them at a loss
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I was with you until here, which comes across as wrong or ignorant. That’s the model with console games, the money is in selling everything ELSE. You have to have hardware to do that.