“Panos Panay” might not be an anagram for “passion,” 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 Windows and its complementary Surface PC line. Interestingly, Panay gave no particular cause for leaving, and at press time had solely posted a single message saying his departure on Twitter/X.

Even extra apparently, Panay had initially said he would oversee the launch of Microsoft’s subsequent Surface gadgets at an occasion this week, on Sept. 21. It’s not clear when Panay’s remaining day might be, nevertheless it’s virtually sure that he’ll hand off presentation duties to another person. According to an inner memo that Microsoft made public, Mikhail Parakhin, who heads up Bing and Bing Chat, will oversee a brand new Windows and Web Experiences workforce. Surface seems to nonetheless be beneath the management of Pavan Duvuluri, the present common supervisor of Surface and the pinnacle of Windows Silicon and Systems Integration. Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s shopper chief, will nonetheless deal with exterior OEM relationships and can most likely oversee the Surface occasion.

So is Panay’s departure a constructive or a detrimental for Microsoft? It’s a chance, however one Microsoft most likely received’t take.

We spent appreciable time outlining the problems with Surface earlier this 12 months. To recap: Microsoft’s Surface {hardware} has change into stale, simply recycling product after product with nary a change in addition to the inner configuration and a tweak to the exterior ports. Competitors are leading the way. (To be truthful, these rivals complained vehemently when Microsoft first launched Surface, believing that Microsoft would train the unfair benefit of being intimately near its Windows workforce.) And, in fact, we weren’t positive how Microsoft would design a PC for the AI age.

It seems that Microsoft is pushing the latter level arduous. By making Parakhin the Windows chief, the function of AI turns into outstanding. It appears seemingly that Windows Copilot, the AI-powered software that (let’s face it) is currently rather dumb, will steadily enhance and start to take over increasingly inside Windows itself.

Will Microsoft head in the suitable path?

Fresh blood is all the time an opportunity for enchancment and alter. But Microsoft doesn’t often change within the path we wish.

Panay and Mehdi are the 2 most outstanding shopper voices at Microsoft. One simply left. But Panay was all the time the person who was synonymous with new experiences, emphasizing the particular person as a lot because the product. His typically tearful displays showcased each his household in addition to the household of gadgets that he launched to the world. Panay struck me as a person who believed strongly in what he did, and satisfied administration to strive new issues, comparable to all the varied iterations of the Surface lineup.

Unfortunately, many weren’t profitable (Surface Neo, Surface Duo) or not clearly so (the Surface Laptop Go, amongst others), although there are definitely loads of sturdy Surface hits. Regardless of success or failure, nevertheless, Surface gadgets 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 buyer.

Mehdi has historically taken a safer, extra company method.

Now, Microsoft and Duvuluri may take this chance to revamp Surface: change its design, clean up its product classes. Where’s our Xbox gaming PC? We may have a recent, brilliant Microsoft, bringing a number of the enjoyable again. Why not a Steam Deck-like cellular gaming PC, too?

Nah.

I believe the other will occur: Microsoft will begin quietly trimming a number of the experimental Surface traces we’ve seen previously, most likely returning to some form of a Surface Pro/Surface Laptop duopoly, with some third gadget (both a Surface Go or subsequent Surface Laptop 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 highway. Microsoft 365 subscriptions have taken off lately, and Microsoft needs 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 needs you to enroll in as many recurring subscriptions as your pockets will bear. Expect enterprise to be the main target, not customers.

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 enthusiastic about AI that helps companies make cash. And why not? That’s the place the cash truly is, in any case.

I feel we should always all ask the query: Did Panos depart as a result of he felt his work was performed? Or as a result of he believed that Microsoft wouldn’t be capable of progress any additional? It’s robust to ask customers to consider within the merchandise Microsoft will introduce this week when their champion has departed the sphere.

Bloomberg reports that Panay is headed to Amazon, to supervise its Alexa division and its associated gadgets.