Panos Panay Talks About iPad Pro, Steve Ballmer And More

Microsoft Devices chief Panos Panay along with Stevie Bathiche spoke with John Cook and Todd Bishop of GeekWire in the GeekWire radio show earlier this week. In this interview, Panos spoke about the competition, especially Apple, Tim Cook’s comments on Surface Book, the much hyped iPad Pro and more.

Here are some of the excerpts from the interview,

Regarding the competition,

John Cook: So what’s been the reaction by other hardware makers to your introduction of the Surface Book, your first real attempt at a laptop.

Panay: I don’t know. I’ve seen quotes. It’s not like my head’s in the sand or anything, but at the same time, I’m not seeking it out. I will tell you, we’ve gotten a lot of compliments; we’ve gotten a lot of love for doing what we did, and you have no idea how flattering that is, because we took a product that we didn’t actually think we could make when we started three years ago, and we looked hard at it and said, this is a huge leap with what we’re trying to accomplish.

Regarding iPad Pro,

TB: So what do you think of the iPad Pro?

Panay: I think … what am I supposed to tell you about the iPad Pro? (Laughter.) Yeah, it’s an interesting product for sure.

TB: There are a lot of similarities, you might say, to the Surface.

Panay: Yeah, sure, there are. I think a lot of people have called that out. I think people love to talk about it. I haven’t used one.

Regarding Tim Cook’s comments on Surface Book,

TB: Apple CEO Tim Cook called the Surface Book “diluted.” Originally the report was “deluded,” but then Apple issued a correction, saying, no he didn’t say it was deluded, he said it was diluted. In other words, it’s trying to be too much, both tablet and laptop, and it’s not the best of either. So what’s your response to Tim Cook?

Panay: I think Tim’s a great leader. Everyone has an opinion, of course. You can argue about any product, I suppose.

Steve Ballmer or Satya Nadella,

TB: Who’s the tougher boss, Steve Ballmer or Satya Nadella?

Panay: Oh man, I’m absolutely not going to answer that question. (Laughter.) They’re both special to me. They’re both very different  They’re such great leaders, I will tell you, they have very different attributes, as you well know, they speak differently, but I will tell you they’re both inspiring. If you get five minutes with either one of them, they blow your mind. We’ve watched the company grow through all these years, and now we have Satya who’s leading us. He’s so elegant and thoughtful, and when we get to walk through the labs together and he puts his hands on the products and he has opinions and he helps form these things, it’s really delightful and inspiring.

Listen to the whole interview below.

https://soundcloud.com/geekwire/interview-microsoft-devices-chief-panos-panay

Read the full interview from the source link below.