Panos Panay, Head of Windows & Surface Departments, Leaves Microsoft

[T0@st]

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?



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[RamiHaidafy]

More disappointing news for Surface. I'm still waiting for the Surface Neo lol.

He will do well at Amazon. Alexa and other Amazon devices need a revamp.

 

[JohH]

Maybe the new leader will stop bingification of Windows?
I doubt it but I'm always hoping.

 

[Double-Click]

I'm still waiting for the surface coffee table and restaurant tables they promised lol.

 

[dicobalt]

Maybe the new leader will stop bingification of Windows?
I doubt it but I'm always hoping.

With the way people use technology today it will likely accelerate. US consumers have already set the zero privacy standard. Nissan and Kia even sell data on driver's "bedroom activities" as they indicate in the privacy policies.

 

[R-T-B]

With the way people use technology today it will likely accelerate. US consumers have already set the zero privacy standard. Nissan and Kia even sell data on driver's "bedroom activities" as they indicate in the privacy policies.

Personally I don't let my car in the bedroom. Problem solved.

 

[dicobalt]

Personally I don't let my car in the bedroom. Problem solved.

Better not connect your phone to your car then. That's how they get ya!

 

[FrostWolf]

While I know Panos Panay has accomplished some good things at Microsoft, I don't consider the Surface and its related product lines part of it.

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.

 

[R-T-B]

Better not connect your phone to your car then. That's how they get ya!

My bedroom is a frogpond so the phone stays out too.

 

[dicobalt]

My bedroom is a frogpond so the phone stays out too.

They'd still know any visits to adult things, texts, images, etc. AI makes it even easier to keep track of that stuff.

 

[R-T-B]

They'd still know any visits to adult things, texts, images, etc. AI makes it even easier to keep track of that stuff.

I know. I was being purposefully not serious. It is certainly a legit issue, though I highly doubt it's being used for more than targeted machine ads based on user identified "habits." Still wrong though.

 

[dicobalt]

I know. I was being purposefully not serious. It is certainly a legit issue, though I highly doubt it's being used for more than targeted machine ads based on user identified "habits." Still wrong though.

Massive legal implications though. Researchers have demonstrated how easy it is to correlate that supposed anonymous marketing data with an actual person. Scam operations are even buying customer data because corporations will sell to anyone. Then there's potential for abuse in politics and law enforcement.

 

[R-T-B]

Massive legal implications though. Researchers have demonstrated how easy it is to correlate that supposed anonymous marketing data with an actual person. Scam operations are even buying customer data because corporations will sell to anyone. Then there's potential for abuse in politics and law enforcement.

Totally agree there. However I think we lost the topic somewhere, heh.

 

[Cheeseball]

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.

The storage is upgradable. The M.2 2230 is accessible from underneath the kickstand.

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.

 

[Jacky_BEL]

So , one of the @ssholes leading windows in the wrong direction?
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.

 

[tpa-pr]

Well that's a shame. Panos was brought in to head the merged Devices + Windows divisions to try and bring Windows back on track after it was forgotten because of the cloud stuff. I've heard him in a couple of interviews with Paul Thurrott and he seemed to have some decent ideas. Maybe the merge didn't work out how he hoped?

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.

 

[Chaitanya]

Maybe the new leader will stop bingification of Windows?
I doubt it but I'm always hoping.

Unfortunately the literal crimes that Android and iOS have been able to get away with MS will continue to push Bingification of Windows. EU really needs to take Google and Apple down just like they did with MS back 90s with Windows and IE.

 

[DeathtoGnomes]

"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."

I love a good, well thought, canned response.

 

[trsttte]

The storage is upgradable. The M.2 2230 is accessible from underneath the kickstand.

It wasn't always that way, they made that change about 2 years ago iirc

 

[Cheeseball]

It wasn't always that way, they made that change about 2 years ago iirc

Yeah, that's true. I think this was available on the Surface Pro 7 first.

 

[btarunr]

I was betting on this guy to eventually succeed Satya Nadella.

 

[bobsled]

I was betting on this guy to eventually succeed Satya Nadella.

I would’ve much preferred Panos at the helm than Satay Nutella.

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.

 

[aktpu]

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 system that's nearly impossible to repair compounded by very poor product support from Microsoft? Absolutely.

Don't want a kickstand? Use Surface Laptop

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

 

[Aleksandar_038]

Microsoft is going AWS-route, and Surface is dead in the water for some time... Failure to get at least a minimal grip on portable market is the final nail to it.
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.

 

[noel_fs]

thank god this guy was clearly a menace