Panos Panay will be next responsible for Amazon’s devices and services (D&S) businessas announced by the e-commerce company in a statement.
The ‘unemployed’ situation has not lasted long for Panay. As we told you, the former vice president of Microsoft, responsible for Windows and Surface, in addition to other positions after almost 20 years at the Redmond firm, will occupy a prominent position in Amazon’s management chart.
Panos Panay will be the head of Amazon’s devices and services division starting at the end of October replacing Dave Limp, who will retire in the coming months. “As a strong inventor and product creator who has extensive experience in both hardware and embedded services, Panos will be a great addition to our D&S organization in the future”said Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon, and to whom he will report.
Dave Limp himself has also welcomed him: «I have known Panos for years and I think he will be a great addition to this organization in the future. He’s a passionate product leader and I can’t wait to see what they all come up with together. “I will work diligently with him over the next two months to ensure a smooth transition during our fall launches.”.
Panos Panay, in charge of Amazon D&S
Although the bulk of Amazon’s income continues to come from the sale of products on its e-commerce platform, the own brand hardware line It is becoming more and more important, as we recently saw at the Amazon Devices event.
In addition to new devices (Fire streamer, Echo assistants or eero routers), the presentation highlighted advances in artificial intelligence and conversational interfaces for its digital assistant Alexa, as well as advanced products for the smart home that use computer vision and artificial intelligence technologies. and facial recognition from Amazon. Their services are also relevant. From those related to the e-commerce platform like Prime to what it offers as a music or video subscription.
Panos Panay has worked on much of this as head of the Microsoft Surface hardware line. Some reports (unconfirmed) claim that Panay decided to leave Microsoft after the company decided cut back on development of some of its Surface devices since they did not generate income. More than a decade ago, the million-dollar losses from the launch of the first Surface (RT) are said to have ended up costing Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer his job.