Amazon Poised To Hire Departing Microsoft Product Chief

Amazon is hiring Microsoft's product chief to run the division responsible for Alexa and the Echo smart speakers, Bloomberg News reported Monday, citing people familiar with the situation. From the report: Panos Panay, who led Microsoft's Windows team and was central to the company's hardware push with its Surface computers, said he was leaving Microsoft earlier Monday. Dave Limp, the longtime Amazon hardware chief, said last month that he would retire from the company before the end of the year.

Who cares

[rossdee]

"the division responsible for Alexa and the Echo smart speakers,"

Something I wouldn't touch with a barge pole.

" Dave Limp, the longtime Amazon hardware chief"

LOL

Why?

[KlomDark]

That guy made a mess of Windows, and the low-powered glueboxes known as Surface machines. (I won one at a conference a couple years ago. I was excited until I realized it's an i3 with 4 GB RAM, unupgradable in any way. My wife likes it for checking email and watching netflix, other than that it's worthless.) I guess Amazon wants their unprofitable Alexa division to be even more unprofitable?

Re:

[jacks smirking reven]

"Failing upward" is a thing. There's something to be said that once a person is wealthy they are given far, far, far more leeway and ability to make mistakes than those on the lower end of the income ladder. So many executives who by all accounts made a mess of things at their previous jobs always seem to keep getting hired again and again, usually for more money.

Re:

[kriston]

I have an i5 Surface Pro 2017 with 8 GB and it's still pretty awesome.

Too bad it's made of soft metal and brittle glass which is why I bought the extended warranty. I paid $45 to replace it when it jumped out of its carrying case a few years ago.

Re:

[KlomDark]

That would be much better than my toy version.

Bad employee keeps failing upwards

[S_Stout]

Once you get to the top you can jump around failing everywhere.

Non-paywalled link

[jenningsthecat]

https://www.geekwire.com/2023/report-departing-microsoft-exec-panos-panay-set-to-lead-amazons-alexa-and-echo-business/

With all these paywalled articles, one might think the editors are encouraging us NOT to Read The Fine Article... ;-)

That guy?

[locater16]

My Surface has super fast and reliable face recognition, a magnetic charger, and reliably sleeps when closed. If you've never had those things they sound dumb, but since I use them literally every day they've become essential.

But MS charges so damned much for these otherwise outdated machines I might add well get a Mac. Which I'm going to, at least I'll get top of the line overpriced hardware instead of midrange. So sure, good luck hiring that guy.

SGI hired Rick Belluzo from Microsoft

[MIPSPro]

That did not end well. [vizworld.com] I have a heavy bag in my garage named after him. I also often write his name on trashcans.

Can You Imagine?

[NoWayNoShapeNoForm]

Running your whatever business-service-blank on AWS ...

Then getting a message one day that AWS whatever version will be marked obsolete on X day where it will lose all support & patches.

You will be told if you want to remain on AWS you must upgrade to AWS "Bob - Basic Edition" or AWS "Bob - Enhanced by Clippy" or even the sooper-dooper AWS "Bob - Now With ChatGPT Support"

And then you examine the pricing ... ! OMFG ! WTF !

What do you do when standing on top of the building and screaming your lungs out j

even amazon

[groobly]

Even Amazon can't figure out how to use Windows 11 without hiring the guy who produced it.