14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft keeps making internal executive changes in search of the winning recipe, and one of the upper management moves that weren’t made public is the appointment of Panos Panay, the man responsible for the entire Surface lineup, as the head of engineering for all Microsoft’s premium devices.
According to a report by ZDNet, after the departure of former Nokia CEO Stephen Elop, Microsoft was looking for a new head for the Devices unit, but since this was transferred to Windows chief Terry Myerson, the company needed someone to oversee the creation of premium devices.
Panos Panay seems to be the man picked for the job, with the report claiming that he won’t take over Elop’s finance and marketing duties, but only the engineering role.
This means that Panay will be responsible for the actual creation of premium devices, including pretty much everything wearing a Microsoft logo, such as Surface tablets, Xbox, Surface Hub, Band, HoloLens, and Windows phones.
Panos Panay is the man behind the Surface tablet lineup at Microsoft, and although many criticized him for the first models, such as the Surface RT - which caused a $900 million write-down one year after launch because of unsold units, his work is now much more appreciated by everyone, as the Surface Pro 3 proved to be a really successful project, despite its premium price.
Premium Windows phones
Microsoft has already confirmed that, with Windows 10 Mobile, it wants to focus on just three different phone categories, namely value, business, and flagships.
Panos Panay could thus be in charge of only the flagships, so the Surface phone, a long-rumored project that was said to be on the table at Microsoft in the previous years, could finally have a chance to succeed.
And yet, it’ll be interesting to see what happens with value phones and business devices, as someone else might be appointed to be in charge of such projects.