Panos Panay has always been the force behind Microsoft’s Surface line. He helped bring Surface to life as a secret project more than a decade ago. He’s presented the new devices on stage at events, appeared in malls to promote Surface hardware, and guided Microsoft’s Surface tablets to success in the years since.
Now he’s leaving in a surprise departure, announced just days before Microsoft’s next big Surface event. Panay will no longer be present at Microsoft’s showcase on Thursday, but will remain with the company for a few more weeks as part of a transition process. He is reportedly joining Amazon to replace Dave Limp and lead Amazon’s Echo and Alexa push. Amazon is also holding its own hardware event on Wednesday.
Panay has largely focused on Surface devices for the past decade, after Microsoft first developed its tablet as a Windows-powered rival to Apple’s iPad. The Surface Pro tablet, which started as a string and plastic concept, has had a lasting impact on Windows laptops, leading Microsoft’s OEM partners and rivals to focus on quality and 2-in-1 devices. The success of the line landed Panay in the role of Microsoft’s Chief Product Officer.
With Panay’s shocking resignation, Microsoft’s event in New York City will now provide the first look at the future of Windows and Surface under new leadership. Microsoft is expected to unveil three new Surface devices, but will also focus on AI-powered features for Surface, Windows, Office, Bing and more.
Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s head of consumer marketing, will now take on the responsibility of leading the Windows and Surface businesses and products externally. Crucially, Mehdi’s job title hasn’t changed with Panay’s departure here, so Microsoft no longer has a Chief Product Officer.
With no clear replacement for Panay’s unique role at Microsoft, it appears Mehdi will assume his responsibilities heading up Windows and Surface devices. While Panay is a product maker, Mehdi has more often than not been the marketing guy for Microsoft’s various consumer efforts.
He first joined Microsoft in 1992, where he worked in product management for Internet Explorer and Windows before leading Microsoft’s entry into search with Bing. His career at Microsoft included three different CEOs – Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Satya Nadella – and a variety of different product launches. He has been involved with Surface, the launch of Windows 10 and the HoloLens headset.
Mehdi was also at the center of Microsoft’s failed TV push for Xbox and the launch of the Xbox One console. He later spearheaded a “modern living” initiative to try to win back the consumers Microsoft had abandoned, following the company’s decisions to discontinue its Groove Music service, discontinue Kinect, to scrap and even discontinue its Microsoft Band fitness device. Windows phone. Microsoft ultimately laid off its modern life team amid budget cuts last year.
Microsoft splits some of Panay’s other responsibilities. Pavan Davuluri, who heads a team focused on silicon, systems and devices in Windows and the cloud, will now report directly to Rajesh Jha, Microsoft’s vice president of experience and devices. This team consists of important Surface talents such as Ralf Groene, Stevie Bathiche and Robin Seiler. Pavan will also assume responsibility for Windows planning and release management.
Interestingly, Microsoft is also building a new ‘Windows and Web Experiences’ team. Microsoft often forms these types of teams when it wants to tackle a particular new area for Windows, and this time it’s building AI-powered web services for Windows. We’ve already seen Microsoft move toward web features in Windows 11, with basics like the search interface dynamically updating from the web, a widget system, and more. So expect to see a lot more of this in the future.
Mikhail Parakhin, who has focused on Bing Chat in recent months, will lead this new experiences team, and it will consist of executives with histories in product management, engineering, and Microsoft’s Android work across devices.
These Windows and Surface leaders will now push Microsoft’s operating system and hardware toward AI. It’s what Microsoft wants people to get excited about right now and something we’ll likely see a lot of at the company’s event on Thursday. Microsoft is increasingly trying to use Windows as a vehicle for its AI efforts, or to push Bing and Edge to both consumers and businesses.
I interviewed key Surface members last year for a story about ten years of Surface, and from my conversation with them it was clear that AI would have a major impact on Windows and Surface over the next decade. There are persistent rumors that the company is building its own Arm chips for servers and Surface PCs, and even competing AI chips to avoid a costly dependence on Nvidia.
“AI is going to reinvent the way you do everything on Windows,” Panay said earlier this year. Panay will no longer be at Microsoft to lead this reinvention of the way you use Windows. But his resignation has not, as far as I can see, signaled a change in strategy or direction for Windows at Microsoft.
The question right now is how Microsoft continues to innovate in hardware. Always a fan of devices, Panay led the Surface Pro development with companies like Apple, Dell and Asus producing their own Surface-like devices. But Microsoft signaled changes to its hardware portfolio earlier this year amid layoffs. Is there still room for Surface to create innovative laptop and tablet designs, as we’ve seen over the past decade, or is Microsoft’s push for AI overshadowing its risky hardware bets?
Microsoft is rumored to have scrapped plans for a dual-screen Surface Duo 3, years after effectively canceling its Windows-powered Surface Neo dual-screen device. It’s not clear what the future holds for Microsoft’s own Android efforts. The original Surface Duo just reached the end of its life with just two Android version updates. Microsoft’s mice, keyboards and webcams have also been discontinued in favor of Surface accessories.
Microsoft also invested heavily in Windows 11 during the pandemic and PC sales boom, but Surface and device revenues have been battered this year as PC shipments saw big declines. Before the PC pandemic boom, Nadella was also looking to a future beyond Windows, iOS and Android. He joked in January 2020 that Windows could be called “Azure Edge” in the future to make clear that cloud services are the biggest hardware business at Microsoft.
During the FTC v. Microsoft During our hearing, we heard that Microsoft wants to move Windows entirely to the cloud on the consumer side, something it is increasingly doing on the commercial side with Windows 365. The formation of a new web-focused Windows team suggests that this effort is very important. movement.
Perhaps this uncertainty around the PC business after a big sales surge has made Panay want to go back to just building devices instead of the complicated task of running Windows and making it ready for AI and a future in the cloud.
All of this will be top of mind when you see Microsoft discuss Windows and Surface at its event on Thursday. We’re entering a new AI era for Windows and Microsoft’s many services, and it will be crucial to see exactly how Surface plays its role without one of its key inventors at the helm.