On September 18, Patently Apple posted a report about Microsoft’s its chief product officer, Panos Panay, moving out of their hardware division and into their Windows OS division. We added an update later that day with a rumor that Panay was going to head up Amazon's hardware division. Today, this story is resurfacing on Bloomberg.  

Panos Panay, who is exiting as Microsoft’s as chief product officer, has been hired to run Amazon’s devices group, which houses the Fire TV streaming devices, Kindle e-readers, Alexa voice assistant and Echo smart speakers. Yet Panos has yet to officially update his LinkedIn Profile to reflect the move, as noted below.

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At Amazon, Panay will replace Dave Limp, senior vice president of Amazon Devices & Services, who announced last month that he was retiring as head of hardware by the end of 2023.

Panay, who first joined Microsoft in 2004, rose through the ranks at the Redmond computer giant and oversaw the company’s Surface line of computing devices, and was responsible for the Microsoft Hardware Division, leading user experience and development for all mice, keyboards, webcams and headsets. In 2018, he was named Microsoft’s chief product officer, where he led the development of Windows 11.

Although Amazon marches to its own drummer regarding hardware, one has to wonder if Amazon is now eyeing to enter the PC market in any significant way. Could we see Amazon  notebooks or catch them entering the new category of hybrid tablet-notebooks that will be hitting the market in a big way in 2024?

With the depth of experience Panos has in PC's, the move to Amazon could be hinting at more aggressive moves into hardware by Amazon in the future. While it'll take a little time for Panos to establish himself at Amazon, it'll be interesting to see where he could take this hardware division over time.