Microsoft’s chief product officer says that hardware is “not just a core part” of what it does and that the Surface brand is here to stay.
In an interview with Irish paper The Independent, Panos Panay said that hardware is at the essence of how it is able to create all of its products and that it is important that it “resonates.”
When asked if Surface was going to be around, Panay replied:
Yes, one hundred per cent. Without hesitation. I think if you asked me five years ago, we were still learning. We were still trying to figure out what hardware should do to bring software to life. But now it’s not just a core part of the strategy.
Learning has been hard for Microsoft at some points, especially with the multiple attempts at garnering a mobile ecosystem through Windows Phone and Windows 10 Mobile, though ultimately failing. Panay took the words of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella to heart:
Lumia, of course, was a challenge. We can take those product lessons and customer lessons and move them forward. I think we have. Satya talks about the growth mindset, about how we can learn as fast as we can through our successes and, mainly, our failures. When you fail, you are in a true learning mode.
As to how the company is approaching an expanded hardware roadmap, the executive’s general belief is that whatever Microsoft does, it has to be “completing experiences for people at work and at home” — much like how the noise-canceling Surface Headphones completes the work experience in a noisy office.
More answers and depth are available in the story linked below.