Panos Panay on launching his first merchandise since transferring to Amazon

Panos Panay has a Weight-reduction plan Coke downside. It’s a subject that shortly got here up after I walked into the small interview room, after he supplied me a alternative of drinks and I stated my accomplice has the same habit. After a fast dialog on some great benefits of ingesting plain water over weight-reduction plan colas, I knew his spouse, like me, advocates for much less soda, however I nonetheless knew nothing of how a lot the person really consumed a day.

It was Panay’s first launch occasion with members of the media since he left Microsoft last year to lead Amazon’s devices and services team. And the moment I walked into the occasion house at The Shed in New York, I assumed “this looks like a Panos occasion.”

The room was drenched in daylight, with numerous impartial and pastel pink couches and armchairs specified by a imprecise semicircle dealing with an unassuming elevated platform. Across the stage had been neatly planted assorted greenery with lavender and what regarded like child’s breath lending a normal softness to the scene.

There was a leather-based stool on the stage that regarded simply large enough to perch on however not snug sufficient to truly relaxation, and subsequent to it was a smaller wood finish desk the place a solo water bottle sat. Panay didn’t as soon as sit throughout his 38-minute presentation. Clad in a black collared shirt, black jacket, black denims and black footwear with a brown trim, Panay introduced his typical sentimental supply to the Kindle launch occasion.

As common, he didn’t draw back from mentioning his household, displaying a rigorously taken image of his daughter Bella studying a Kindle on a sofa. He referred to as out members of the media by identify, saying howdy to Lance Ulanoff within the entrance row and asking David Pierce if he might hear. At one level, he walked over to the center row handy a new Kindle off to tech Youtuber Jacklyn Dallas, asking her to faucet repeatedly on the display to scroll by pages and see for herself how a lot sooner he believed it was.

Amazon

I say all this to impress on you that the Panos expertise is one which’s inviting, participating and may even lull you into feeling so charmed that you just may overlook the truth that he repeatedly calls the Kindle Scribe a 2-in-1. It was actually sufficient to offer me extra endurance than I usually would have for a tech chief that had spent nearly a 3rd of his presentation speaking in regards to the Kindle’s historical past and the place it matches into individuals’s lives. As an alternative of considering “get on with it, I wish to hear in regards to the new gadgets with out all this preamble,” I merely laughed on the jokes, made eye contact and associated to the private anecdotes. And although I knew we had been previous the 38 minutes he had promised the speech would final, I didn’t thoughts that he was nonetheless speaking.

I used to be capable of query him about 2-in-1s after we sat down to speak, although. The time period brings to my thoughts the picture of Floor tablets and iPads, to not point out the Floor Duo and Floor Neo that Panay launched at a remarkably comparable Microsoft occasion years in the past. Kindles? Not a lot. However in response to Panay, the Kindle Scribe “does two issues, and it does it remarkably nicely. Seems, it solely does two issues.”

Individuals wish to learn on their Kindles, however in addition they wish to write in books. “Each experiences have to face on their very own in an effective way,” he added. “You should buy this machine for writing, or you should purchase this machine for studying after which you may bridge it.”

But when a tool tries to be an excessive amount of, it’d get too difficult. After I requested what was subsequent for the Kindle Scribe and what challenges it faces, Panay stated “You’ve obtained to watch out to not make it a Swiss military knife. That’s most likely the most important problem — what it’s not gonna be.”

Panay defined that “at Amazon, the concentrate on the purchasers is off the charts,” saying the crew talks to customers, reads evaluations and research how individuals use their merchandise to raised perceive wants. “Basically, for this crew, [it’s to] know what the client wants, be passionate, be sure to ship it.”

“Let’s not attempt to reinvent issues that folks don’t want reinvented.”

The method Panay has introduced over to Amazon is one which considers his historical past at Microsoft (and his complete life). He by no means explicitly mentions this, however I can’t assist questioning if he’s discovered something from that firm saying the Floor Neo dual-screen laptop computer and never really releasing it.

Panay additionally stated that in getting to know clients’ wants, Amazon additionally has to attempt to predict what they could need. “You even have to know the place the know-how is headed and it’s important to have roadmaps,” he stated. “You must have invention and creation that units you up for the place it’s headed, so when individuals land, they’ve the subsequent factor they want and hopefully it was your product that obtained them there.”

“Let’s not attempt to reinvent issues that folks don’t want reinvented.”Panos Panay

That want to foretell traits makes me nervous, particularly at a time when each main firm is dashing to stuff generative AI options into their merchandise. How ought to corporations like Amazon resist the urge to leap on bandwagons and keep away from making merchandise that finally are the results of ineffective hype? To Panay, the reply is endurance.

“Endurance is the whole lot,” he stated. “What’s the proper factor for the product on the proper time? How is it helpful? How is it elegant?” He acknowledged that “we’re at a time the place AI for positive is transformational. This isn’t a fad.” There are issues AI can carry to the Kindle Scribe and different merchandise that might elevate them. However “making it helpful for everybody is essential to me, and making it easy.”

There are simply two AI-based pocket book options for the Kindle Scribe, they usually principally learn your scribbles and convert them to one thing extra legible and digestible. They’re not groundbreaking ideas — I’ve seen at the very least 5 totally different corporations launch summarization instruments within the final yr. However Panay made it clear by private anecdotes on stage that these are essential to him and his employees. He doesn’t wish to let individuals see his handwritten notes, however he’ll allow them to see the model tidied up by AI. Whether or not the remainder of the world’s Kindle customers will discover these useful, I’m much less sure.

For now, Panay needs to good the Kindle Scribe expertise. “You possibly can by no means make something good, I’m by no means happy. Nevertheless it’s so shut proper now… to feeling like paper, to feeling like an eraser, to feeling such as you’re writing, to no distractions in your means.” He referred to as it his favourite youngster through the presentation (however later saying that he felt responsible doing that).

There are many different youngsters within the Amazon {hardware} household that Panay oversees. He’s not solely accountable for the 4 Kindles launched at the moment, together with the brand new colour ereader referred to as the Colorsoft, however the firm’s good residence, robotaxi, satellite tv for pc, client robots and Alexa merchandise, in addition to Fireplace TVs and tablets, too.

“It's an eclectic group of merchandise at some degree, but it surely's really fairly a related one on the identical time.” There’s additionally stuff that Panay couldn’t but speak about on the document, however he stated there’s “a lot magic but to be shared with the world.” In a extra real looking method of talking, it’s about seeing this stuff “related in a means that may make a distinction for individuals’s lives on daily basis of their properties and outdoors of the house.”

The Amazon Kindle Scribe held in mid-air, with a skylight and buildings in the background.

There are different methods the Kindle Scribe might evolve that wouldn’t be a stretch of the creativeness, both. The obvious is getting a colour show, and Panay agreed “it’s not a stretch in any respect, most likely” earlier than happening to say he can’t talk about future roadmaps. However I can actually speculate.

Whereas it’s attention-grabbing to see Amazon provide you with an entire new identify for the Colorsoft, indicating that it’ll maybe be a separate product line, it could make sense for the Colorsoft to be a one-off and for the colour panels to get built-in into different present Kindles in future.

One other potential technological change to Kindles is making them foldable. To that finish, Panay merely stated “It’s an attention-grabbing idea.” After I identified that he’s no stranger to folding gadgets, he acknowledged “I’m undoubtedly not,” earlier than including that “we’ve got a ton of ideas within the lab.”

Crucially, although, he reiterates he doesn't “wish to create tech for the sake of making tech.” If the thought is correct, Panay is open to contemplating it. “However proper now, preserving it easy is the place we’re at.”

This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/panos-panay-on-launching-his-first-products-since-moving-to-amazon-163024504.html?src=rss

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