Panos Panay on launching his first merchandise since shifting to Amazon

Panos Panay has a Food regimen Coke drawback. It’s a subject that rapidly got here up once I walked into the small interview room, after he supplied me a selection of drinks and I mentioned my accomplice has the same habit. After a fast dialog on some great benefits of consuming plain water over food regimen colas, I knew his spouse, like me, advocates for much less soda, however I nonetheless knew nothing of how a lot the person truly consumed a day.

It was Panay’s first launch occasion with members of the media since he left Microsoft final 12 months to guide Amazon’s units and companies crew. And the moment I walked into the occasion area at The Shed in New York, I believed “this looks like a Panos occasion.”

The room was drenched in daylight, with varied impartial and pastel pink couches and armchairs specified by a obscure semicircle dealing with an unassuming elevated platform. Across the stage have 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 comfy sufficient to really relaxation, and subsequent to it was a smaller picket 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 regular, he didn’t draw back from mentioning his household, displaying a fastidiously taken image of his daughter Bella studying a Kindle on a sofa. He known as out members of the media by title, saying whats up to Lance Ulanoff within the entrance row and asking David Pierce if he may hear. At one level, he walked over to the center row handy a brand 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 quicker he believed it was.

I say all this to impress on you that the Panos expertise is one which’s inviting, partaking and may even lull you into feeling so charmed that you simply would possibly overlook the truth that he repeatedly calls the Kindle Scribe a 2-in-1. It was actually sufficient to present me extra persistence than I usually would have for a tech chief that had spent virtually a 3rd of his presentation speaking concerning the Kindle’s historical past and the place it suits into folks’s lives. As a substitute of pondering “get on with it, I wish to hear concerning the new units with out all this preamble,” I merely laughed on the jokes, made eye contact and associated to the non-public anecdotes. And although I knew we have 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 in a position to query him about 2-in-1s once 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 related Microsoft occasion years in the past. Kindles? Not a lot. However in line with Panay, the Kindle Scribe “does two issues, and it does it remarkably nicely. Seems, it solely does two issues.”

Folks wish to learn on their Kindles, however additionally 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 gadget for writing, or you should buy this gadget 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 mentioned “You’ve acquired to watch out to not make it a Swiss military knife. That’s in all probability the most important problem — what it’s not gonna be.”

Panay defined that “at Amazon, the give attention to the purchasers is off the charts,” saying the crew talks to customers, reads critiques and research how folks use their merchandise to higher perceive wants. “Essentially, 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 total life). He by no means explicitly mentions this, however I can’t assist questioning if he’s realized something from that firm asserting the Floor Neo dual-screen laptop computer and never truly releasing it.

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

That need to foretell traits makes me nervous, particularly at a time when each main firm is speeding 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 in the end are the results of ineffective hype? To Panay, the reply is persistence.

“Persistence is every part,” he mentioned. “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 certain is transformational. This isn’t a fad.” There are issues AI can convey to the Kindle Scribe and different merchandise that might elevate them. However “making it helpful for everybody is vital to me, and making it easy.”

There are simply two AI-based pocket book options for the Kindle Scribe, and so they mainly learn your scribbles and convert them to one thing extra legible and digestible. They’re not groundbreaking ideas — I’ve seen not less than 5 completely different corporations launch summarization instruments within the final 12 months. However Panay made it clear by private anecdotes on stage that these are vital to him and his employees. He doesn’t wish to let folks 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 excellent the Kindle Scribe expertise. “You may by no means make something excellent, 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 approach.” He known as it his favourite youngster throughout the presentation (however later saying that he felt responsible doing that).

There are many different kids within the Amazon {hardware} household that Panay oversees. He’s not solely answerable for the 4 Kindles launched immediately, together with the brand new coloration ereader known as the Colorsoft, however the firm’s sensible residence, robotaxi, satellite tv for pc, shopper robots and Alexa merchandise, in addition to Hearth TVs and tablets, too.

“It is an eclectic group of merchandise at some degree, but it surely’s truly fairly a related one on the identical time.” There’s additionally stuff that Panay couldn’t but speak about on the file, however he mentioned there’s “a lot magic but to be shared with the world.” In a extra sensible method of talking, it’s about seeing this stuff “related in a approach that may make a distinction for folks’s lives day-after-day of their houses and out of doors of the house.”

There are different methods the Kindle Scribe may evolve that wouldn’t be a stretch of the creativeness, both. The obvious is getting a coloration show, and Panay agreed “it’s not a stretch in any respect, in all probability” earlier than occurring to say he can’t focus on future roadmaps. However I can actually speculate.

Whereas it’s fascinating to see Amazon provide you with an entire new title 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 mentioned “It’s an fascinating idea.” After I identified that he’s no stranger to folding units, he acknowledged “I’m undoubtedly not,” earlier than including that “now we have a ton of ideas within the lab.”

Crucially, although, he reiterates he does not “wish to create tech for the sake of making tech.” If the concept is true, Panay is open to contemplating it. “However proper now, holding it easy is the place we’re at.”