Panos Panay says Microsoft bets big on new form factors
Microsoft’s highly-anticipated Surface Phone would never see daylight. That’s what Panos Panay, head of devices at Microsoft, finally confirmed, explaining that the Redmond-based giant would focus entirely on new form factors.
This means the traditional smartphone as we know it is dead for Microsoft, and instead of investing in this concept, the company will try to continue the trend started with the original Surface and pioneer new product categories.
In an interview with Wired, Panos Panay describes the company’s vision towards devices in the long term, emphasizing that creating new form factors has become a priority for Microsoft.
When asked if this vision also includes a Surface Phone, Panay offered the answer that all of us already knew.
“Well, I wouldn’t say that includes a Surface Phone. You have to think about where is that unmet need when you’re thinking about your product roadmap, when you’re thinking about your lineup. Of course we’re always inventing, of course we’re thinking about new form factors,” he said.
“It doesn’t include a Surface Phone, but it includes the way to think about what it is that people want to accomplish and how they are going to accomplish it. What are those form factors?”
The next big project on Microsoft’s roadmap aligns with this strategy. Codenamed Andromeda, this product is supposed to use a dual-screen design for supporting multiple form factors. Recent rumors indicated that Microsoft pushed back the project from a potential late 2018 release to the fall of 2019, allegedly to improve the software powering the device.
“I would say there will be new form factors, there will be new change in the market, and there will be opportunity. The way people will communicate in the future will change. The form factors will wrap around that. And so when you say the phone form factor changes, I would flip it a little bit and say that communication changes,” Panay explained.
