How Microsoft built a hardware empire with Surface
The Microsoft Surface line has grown a lot in the five years since its debut. It now encompasses the Surface Pro tablet, Surface Book convertible, Surface Studio all-in-one, Surface Hub digital "whiteboard," and the brand-new Surface Laptop.
The man in charge of it all: Panos Panay, Microsoft's corporate vice president for Surface Computing.
Panay paid a visit to the MashTalk studio this week, and we took the opportunity to ask him about a few Surface facts that piqued our curiosity — and one or two that were irking us —about the Surface line.
Panay opened up about about the history of the Surface, going all the way back to before it was a consumer product (the name was first attached to Microsoft's giant touchscreen tabletop, meant for retailers and restaurants). Starting with the 2012 unveiling of the first tablet, Panay gave us the inside story on how Microsoft built its own high-end hardware empire, revealed some insight into why it took so long for the company to build an actual laptop, and finally explained why they don't just bundle the Surface Pro with a frickin' keyboard already.
Also, will we ever see a Surface phone? Panay's answer is ... unsurprising.
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Topics Microsoft
Pete Pachal was Mashable’s Tech Editor and had been at the company from 2011 to 2019. He covered the technology industry, from self-driving cars to self-destructing smartphones.Pete has covered consumer technology in print and online for more than a decade. Originally from Edmonton, Canada, Pete first uploaded himself into technology journalism at Sound & Vision magazine in 1999. Pete also served as Technology Editor at Syfy, creating the channel's technology site, DVICE (now Blastr), out of some rusty HTML code and a decompiled coat hanger. He then moved on to PCMag, where he served as the site's News Director.Pete has been featured on Fox News, the Today Show, Bloomberg, CNN, CNBC and CBC.Pete holds degrees in journalism from the University of King's College in Halifax and engineering from the University of Alberta in Edmonton. His favorite Doctor Who monsters are the Cybermen.
