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.”
I’ve heard the incentives for Google are all messed up. If an engineer has an idea, they really only get credit if they build a new product around it. That’s why instead of new features, Google just ends up fragmenting their own users or ends up in a never ending birth/death cycle.
Google Wave, for example, had some amazing ideas, but it was basically just an email upgrade. They should have pulled an iMessage with it. If you send a message Gmail to Gmail, it becomes a Wave, otherwise, you send an email. This would have let it get some legs and drove more people to Gmail. Instead, they made it its own invite only thing and it died. Their dozen chat apps are the other better example.
For a while I was following some Microsoft blog where they would show stuff Microsoft is working on. It was so frustrating. They had all this cool stuff that was never going to see the light of day.
Apple seems like one of the few companies they really backs the stuff they release. There have been a few exceptions, but not many. People might give them shit for not innovating enough, but people feel fairly safe buying new Apple products day one, because they aren’t worried about being burned. And when Apple introduces new features they figure out where it fits into their existing lineup and strategy. The whole thing seems much more thoughtful.