Monday, September 18th 2023
Panos Panay, Head of Windows & Surface Departments, Leaves Microsoft
Panos Panay, Microsoft's chief product officer—where he has lead development on Windows (since 2020) and the company's Surface device product line (from the start)—is leaving the American multinational technology corporation. He made it official on X this afternoon: "After 19 incredible years at Microsoft, I've decided to turn the page and write the next chapter. I'm forever grateful for my time at Microsoft and the amazing people I had the honor to make products with." In an email sent to employees, Rajesh Jha (vice president of experience and devices) said: "After nearly 20 years at the company, Panos Panay has decided to leave Microsoft. Panos has had an incredible impact on our products and culture as well as the broader devices ecosystem. Under Panos' leadership, the team created the iconic Surface brand with loved products. More recently, as the leader of Windows, the team has brought amazing services and experiences to hundreds of millions with Windows 11 on innovative devices including those from our OEM partners. He will be missed, and I am personally very grateful for his many contributions over the years. Please join me in wishing him well."
A press release regarding the high-level departure was released to media outlets not long ago—Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had some kind words: "Thank you, Panos, for your impact on our products, culture, company, and industry over the past two decades. I'm grateful for your leadership, support, and all you've done for Microsoft and our customers and partners. We remain steadfast and convicted in our strategy, and Yusuf Mehdi will take lead on our Windows and Surface businesses and products externally." Mehdi is the current Corporate Vice President & Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, perhaps best known for producing a lot of his company's big artificial intelligence announcements. Microsoft is expected to reveal a bunch of next-gen Surface models later this week—will the new boss be in attendance?
Sources:
Panos Panay Tweet, The Verge, Ars Technica
A press release regarding the high-level departure was released to media outlets not long ago—Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had some kind words: "Thank you, Panos, for your impact on our products, culture, company, and industry over the past two decades. I'm grateful for your leadership, support, and all you've done for Microsoft and our customers and partners. We remain steadfast and convicted in our strategy, and Yusuf Mehdi will take lead on our Windows and Surface businesses and products externally." Mehdi is the current Corporate Vice President & Consumer Chief Marketing Officer, perhaps best known for producing a lot of his company's big artificial intelligence announcements. Microsoft is expected to reveal a bunch of next-gen Surface models later this week—will the new boss be in attendance?
35 Comments on Panos Panay, Head of Windows & Surface Departments, Leaves Microsoft
He will do well at Amazon. Alexa and other Amazon devices need a revamp.
I doubt it but I'm always hoping.
Display resolutions too high for usage on systems that small? Yep.
Horrible keyboards? Yep.
A kickstand that means you can never use one as a true laptop on a hotel bed while traveling or really, any of them as a laptop without a lapdesk? Check.
Non-upgradeable storage and memory? Check.
A non-replaceable battery on a device costing $800 and up, producing more e-waste? You betcha.
Quirks and odd hardware choices (e.g., Marvell wireless adapters on some models, Surface Dock issues) that require regular firmware updates that may or may not fix the issue? Ummm....
A much-higher-than-normal percentage of battery issues compounded by other issues mentioned here (non-replaceable, poor support)? Yes!
A system that's nearly impossible to repair compounded by very poor product support from Microsoft? Absolutely.
I've experienced too much pain working with the Surface Pros of other users (of multiple generations) to say they're a good product. Useful, perhaps, but I found so much more useful products with better reliability and support, for the same money or less. The Surface Pro is a "just okay" tablet, and a lousy laptop/ultrabook replacement.
The kickstand, despite not being useful when actually having it on your lap, is actually better on a bed since it doesn't cover any of the HSF vents on the top of the device. Generally when you're sitting down on the couch or laying normally on the bed you would use this like a tablet.
Good riddance.
(I noticed Edge now has rounded corners , WOW what a major improvement)
I will not rant about how the latest LCU windows update fails to install.
In any case, all the best to him. I hope his successor (who's name rings a bell but I can't recall why) keeps working on restoring Windows to a more usable state.
Panos brought some awesome ideas through the Surface device lineup. He will be missed! Time to grab a Laptop Studio 2 before they can the Surface products entirely.
My bet in 10 years is no consumer PCs, and Microsoft split into corporate (Azure) and consumer (Xbox, Game dev) arms.
Battery? You can buy replacement battery directly from MS for $237.99 (SP9) NVMe is a standard (albeit a short one) driver
Use thunderbolt, if you don't want to use a Surface dock
SP9 scored 7/10 from ifixit, which is not great, but far from terrible
Stop livin' in the past
Windows is dead even long before Panay, since Nadella took over. Microsoft looked at it as a stone around its neck for quite some time. Windows development team was reduced to ashes, and now we have just skeletal crew pretending to do some work around Windows - only development we saw on Edge and cloud stuff that can easily be migrated later.
Last true Windows development effort from Microsoft was Windows 8.1. Everything later was just patching, calculating and abandoning product that made them great.
Maybe that is characteristic of successful company... Yet, I think it is major failure on Microsoft part.