The TRUTH About Surface Duo with Panos Panay

Very excited here today. We've got Panos Panay from Microsoft on the show

Big things happening here talking, of course, about the latest device, the new Surface Duo

which I've been playing with for a while. And honestly, I get excited anytime I'm kind of interacting with a new form factor

Anytime I get an opportunity to play with something that is not a slab of glass

just the same thing done over again. I've seen that, obviously, almost a thousand times on the channel

for the amount of time that I've been doing this. And I understand that this device is sort of your baby

Is that fair to say? I think it's probably a good characterization

I kind of get in trouble at home sometimes when I say these are like my children

because especially when the kids watch, if that makes sense. Like it's, uh, but yeah, I think it's a representation, uh, yeah

Of the whole team's kind of investment at the end of the day

Like there's an amazing team that works on this, these products, but yeah, it is near and dear to my heart. It's, it's been, yeah. Yeah

It's emotional for sure. It's my baby for, yeah, I think I can say that. Well, I mean, I think it kind of

it's so different and new that it's going to, it would, it would require somebody to sort of push it through or a team

as you mentioned, because it is so different from what's out there. And I'm sure most people's approach would be to sort of look at what's

happening in the marketplace and sort of approaching a new device with that in mind

But this is so different from what's out there that for me

I sort of imagined it as being, it would have to be somebody's passion project to put this through

Fair enough. I think you're right. It is different enough that it takes a little bit of conviction

a little bit of, you know, the team had a vision. They're amazing

And I believe in where we wanted to take the industry on this topic

Like it's a big deal. Lou, you got to look. You got to look at what do people want to do

What are they trying to do? How can we make things easier for them? we always talk about it that way. Like, what is it, what are, what are the needs of, what are the

needs of, you know, people, consumers, uh, any picture customer segment, but that's a pretty

important element where once you sort of see where you want to take things, it does take conviction

and investing in technology, you know, investing in a new form factor and standing behind where we

think it's different, uh, and, and how important it is to enable different things to happen. I

I think we're seeing it. We're seeing that. Don't get me wrong. There's plenty of people who will throw doubt at it

There's plenty of people who will have opinions that are like, I don't get it. It's fine

But ultimately, yeah, it takes a little bit of vision. It takes some vision and conviction

And then ultimately, if it's anchored in customers, if it's anchored in the people you believe are going to go after it and use it

and it'll make a difference in their lives, we get pretty jacked up. it's something where uh we get excited i i personally get to this point of like wow we're

gonna make a difference um we can we can drive change yeah that's inspiring and then you watch

this team kind of roll into it it and and believe in what they're building and making and by the way

five six years in the making this isn't like we had an idea right last october i got on stage and

then said hey check it out here it is uh that's not how it really works and you iterate iterate

iterate and uh here we are talking to you and so i'm i'm curious do you look at this device

as a phone do you call it a phone is it a phone i get in trouble i get in trouble man with this

question i gotta be honest i've answered it plenty of different ways so like somebody should

go get the excerpt it's like what what has he said right it just depends you know i look at it

is a surface and that's my mind it's not that's not even like a trick that's not a like a marketing

tool it's none of that it's like this is how we talked about this is surface it's a product that's

going to adapt to what you need to do period and that hinge allows it the thinness allows it the

fitting in your pocket enables it the idea that i can move around with it stay connected at all

times and all of a sudden you're like well what what's my phone for if i have a surface duo

So then ask the question, do you think it's a phone? Sure. At that point, if you feel like the mental model, if you think I'm going to replace my phone with Duo, you should

Like, it's transformative, I believe. Right. So to be clear, though, for you, it is your phone

It is. I mean, I carry two phones, or I had carried two phones for the longest time

Now I carry two of these. And quite frankly, I only need one now

It's super fascinating. like uh calendar and mail side by side is a big deal for me instagram and twitter uh youtube and

instagram at the same time like these are things that i could only at one point um you know mail

and calendar on my on my pc to get things done and just know where i'm at because i'm moving you know

so fast and connecting with others but now it's kind of it's it's transformed how i'm operating

like this is it this is my phone now i don't have a problem saying that's where i kind of get in

trouble. Like you just said it wasn't a phone. Like I promise, I promise you for many, it will

be their phone. For others, it'll be a replacement for their tablet, you know, and, and for many

it'll be the second phone. Like I totally get it. Um, I do think though that once you, here's a

here's the thing with this product. Um, when you first use it, it depends how you intend to use it

Uh, it will either take you longer to, to learn or shorter. And depending on how you use it

If you take your primary SIM out, you put it in this, you put it in the Duo, it will become your phone

And within a week, it will be the only thing you can use and it will transform how you're doing things

If you choose to, you know, use it as a tablet, it'll take a little longer on the learning curve

The engagement model is where you engage it. And I think eventually it migrates to be in your phone

So I think it'll be different for most people. For me, you know, it's my phone

Yeah. So then I get to this part for me where I'm thinking about the foldable market. Like we've got all these new devices emerging that are sort of taking their own approach towards what this next device is going to be

So I also have a problem calling all these things phones because I envision kind of where they might go and sort of see them as futuristic computing devices

Myself, I'm speaking on the phone less and less in the traditional sense

And so I've obviously played with Samsung's latest device. I've played with another foldable device, which I've got a video coming out soon, which I can't really mention

There so many different approaches to these kind of pocketable convertible things Now what makes yours different is you done this dual screen approach instead of attempting to bend an OLED display like others have what is the mindset there why dual display instead of

a folding yeah I get stuck on foldable when you say that I kind of go foldable right uh

we looked at foldable okay this we didn't go that direction we didn't we didn't actually want

land in foldable here let me give you some context and don't get me wrong it's going to get categorized

all over the place phone foldable tablet two screen it's okay like that's going to happen we

don't nobody really controls that but i would say um our intent was dual screen like we have this

rich history of understanding multi-mom this rich history of multitasking two apps at the same time

on windows we understand like how people engage better uh especially when it's structured in

frame for them and what we found was there were a couple elements in a folding screen i mean that's

just a closed product and an open product and then there's management of windows and how do you get

things where you want to really love love the concept and then we actually studied you know

we studied brain waves we studied patterns where we like we understand that when people put two

screens side by side, their brain lights up differently. It just does. And it, it, you

you can engage, uh, get more done tasks. Uh, you can get more done faster, but it's also

you know, this is the weird, weird part. It's less stressed to do it that way

And so the concept of windowing is not new, especially for, for Microsoft, but the idea

that you can put two windows, if you will, or screens side by side and get them in your pocket

Wow, that was powerful. And then when we started the studying and the belief and moving from one

screen to the other and connecting those two things, that even started to validate where we

were going. And then ultimately the thing that we talked, and I think you saw it, but the hinge

being able to go back 360 degrees and take the call if you needed to, and then close it when you

were done. Both those concepts were vital to what this product was going to be. All right

then pause. We have this belief in dual screen. The architecture had to be invented to get it

right. The hinge had to be invented over multiple generations. You saw the launch videos, I'm sure

but a little bit of you saw Pavan and Jasmine talk about the depth of engineering that came

the years to get to this thinness, all that great. What we realize as we study and work

through the scene down the middle of this product tends to be the thing that I celebrate more than

anything, because it is the structure that's needed for the two screens side by side for us

So you can launch two things. They place where you would expect them to place

and then you engage. It's a very powerful kind of concept for somebody who's using it and gets

into it. It's almost, uh, it's got this, it's got this quality where once you learn it, you're in

And now you want to browse and text. Now you want to have a call you and me having this call

And on the other side, I want to just stay informed and connected with somebody else. I want to watch a video, maybe talk about what I'm watching. I want to edit a video. All these

things started to come to life and that out of your pocket loop. And now it's mind blowing. Now

go back to foldable. So your original question like so, but then there's foldable, like, yeah

I think that's an opening and closing screen and it's limited to what we wanted. Then

then the architecture around it was you didn't actually get that structure of two screens. You have to create that. It doesn't mean it can't be created. It's an extra step. Maybe it's

complex. It's not, I have not used the products you're using. So I don't, you know, I'm not

I can't comment, but I will tell you that fundamentally, uh, we looked at both what we

can accomplish and what we think is better for the user is what we ran after and we you know dug

into well i can speak a little bit about well having experimented with all these different

new devices and one thing that stands out to me about your product is how polished it feels

the hardware where the folding oled has a kind of a wow factor to see it bend at the same time

there's almost a little bit of apprehension for the user about how solid it is or long-term durable

or whether it's even the final form of that tech. As opposed to holding the Surface Duo, which it feels robust, solid

It feels further along in the generation than a first-generation product. Well, I mean, it probably speaks to the fact that you guys have been working on it for so long

It's not necessarily your first-gen product, especially from a hardware standpoint. I mean, it's a good point

I think what you're – we have this – it was important to us that this product was emotional when you picked it up

It felt emotion. Like, not the product itself, but the human that grabbed it

And that meant we had to push kind of the boundaries of thinness, the hinge, the radii

Like, what you're solving for here – I mean, here's my camera

right there, and then when you fold it back, like that perfectly flat piece, because when it's in

your pocket, we didn't want this bulge, we didn't want this bulk. We also wanted a large enough

screen, so when you did open it, you had this, whoa, I got so much content. Did I really just

take this out of my pocket? Look at how much I have. That's all emotional in many ways, but then

when you pick it up, you feel the thinness, and honestly, the build quality, it's the best

we've accomplished in surface. And, uh, there's a team, like it takes so much pride in this year

the mechanical engineers, the double ease, the industrial designers, uh, there, they are in

uh, together, uh, and refusing to compromise, you know, and, and it took years to get to that

point. And it's taken generations of other products and that history to show up in this

product so you can feel that but what you also understand is and you saw this lube like the

thinness comes from the fact that there is no radius here on the hinge there is no bulge or

bulk it is you put it together put it next to a regular phone or a slab as you said you're going

to kind of see they're about the same thickness when this is closed with two screens that was the

that was the goal and then when you open it there was this emotional connection you can either hold

it like a book you can fold it backwards it'll adapt to you all that's true and the hinges

it gives you that you know that kind of car door feeling like it just robust that high-end car door

like you open it close it you're like wow i know i can trust it those are elements yeah actually

actually i think it's even better than a lot of car doors because it stops at any point as opposed

to finding those those stop points i do have i have a slightly nicer car that does stop at any

point like this hinge but that costs a lot more money than it's super delightful right like that

yes absolutely yeah so we have a couple incredible and these mechanical engineers that work on this

product incredible and the friction hinge and what it is uh you know like if you sat through some of these reviews and the design points and the care and love that goes into every element every part of the angle Now the trick is

is the device understanding what angle it's sitting at. Now that's the software hardware

integration. We got to know. We got to know what the user's intention is. We almost have

to predict it many times. And, uh, that also is a process. So you've got to perfect the hardware

and then you got to bring the software along and that's what makes a product of course. But, uh

bringing those two things together has been, has been delightful and, and, uh

almost feel like, uh, I maybe, you know, I don't want to be, um, overstated, but really it's this

this team is pretty incredible what they're, what they're able to accomplish. so i have a functional question for you i've been using a device for a while myself but probably

nowhere near well definitely nowhere near the amount of time that you've been using it

do you ever take it in the sort of folded this way i don't know if you can see that

open the open fold do you ever put it in your pocket like that but locked yeah um

yes it just depends what i'm doing like if i'm there are time the answer is yes more times than

not i leave it in phone mode is what this is called that's how i leave it right and um i gotta

be careful because i've got messages here and i don't want you know it's amazing what people

pause and zoom it out. Oh, trust me. I've experienced it. Many times

It blows my mind when I get a phone call. What were you thinking? I'm like, shit, I was just using my product

I don't know what. I've had to change my phone number a few times

I can imagine. I can imagine. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I use it this way more times than not

There are times, though. So like if I'm at Costco, which seems to be my super, you know, that's like my date night with Mary these days, my wife

And we need to go where we go. Right. I will close it, put it in my pocket and just chill

And that kind of actually shuts things down for me. It's quite nice

It's different. And I get a vibration or I know if I'm getting a call

If I'm wearing my earbuds, I can take it. but really when I want to close it, I close it

But outside of that, like, no, even by my nightstand, I put it down like this just so I can get my glanceables

And it's just like my phone. Now, you can start questioning, like, how well does it fit in your hand

and if you're going to use it all the time that way. My primary typing posture when I'm in phone mode is just two thumbs on the device

and going full speed so i can respond quickly and just stay engaged but like you said i'm not

taking a lot of calls anymore yeah well actually the the reason for the question was sort of around

that digital detox concept you know the phone the typical smartphone is always in open mode

it's sort of always there when you place it on place it on a table pull it out of your pocket

it's constantly inviting you to interact with it and this kind of shares something with laptops

in the sense that when you close the lid you're done with it for a bit at least spot on spot on

like good for you uh thank you there's something when we designed the product was closure um my

team doesn't like when i say this publicly but closure matters like sometimes you just want to

done um four kids blue when i believe me like there's plenty to do at all times but

i love this idea like when we sit down to play fortnite i shut my duo and put it down and we

sit next to each other my daughter and i she's 10 and she's better than i am in every sense but we

jump in it actually you can't disturb me as opposed to watching my screen light up and then oh wait

wait, I'm missing something. And that digital detox you talked about, have you experienced this? I I'm sure you have

Have you been in a conversation with somebody who's wearing a watch and

the next, you know, they're talking, they're actually talking and they look down at their watch and you can see

they come out of flow, their brain twists. They read what they said and they come back up

You feel that emotional disconnect and then you kind of have to catch back up

You got to like, yeah, there's like pause. I'm like, where was I? some are better than others at re-engaging you know I to your point of that detox like

I don't think it's getting better right now like in many ways you know we're getting informed at

all times and you know it's disruptive and it helps takes us out of our flow sometimes as humans

that are connected even in video calls now you know during as we work through COVID and we spend

so much time on our PCs you'll see people glance at their phones or their watch while they're

talking to you, you can feel that. That's not like a missed emotion or a missed connection between

people. We don't dismiss that. We see eyes move. We then take those micro tells on the other side

We use them. Are they listening to me? Are they just not interested? Uh-oh, did they get over

interrupted? Should I pause and ask them if they need a minute? Like all those things kind of pull

us out. So one of the things that Duo does is you want to connect. You want to be connected

closing it matters and i'm not over indexing on it but it's real for sure now to that point this

is the learning curve of the product if you're used to a phone in your pocket and you're addicted

to that glanceable nature of it addicted might not be the right word i'll probably get in trouble for

that i think it's the right word i think it's an absolutely fair word like well let's just say

that's it like what you do is you always you know you're like just check am i missing something i'm missing missing there is a learning curve to not have that available to you and the longer you use

this product the more you actually respect that and appreciate it but at first you're like i just

want to get to the information i want to know when it's coming in i remember getting that feedback

when we first started or i i just need to know when information is passing through i'm like you

probably do and if use duo and when it's closed it's closed if it doesn't work for you then don't

It's okay. Like, but, uh, and then the answer is you can use it folded back and, and that's, that's

okay too. Like it's a phone at that point, but I do love the concept of digital detox

I do love the concept of it. Sometimes we need to be with each other, Lou. Um, and some, yeah, I feel that

I mean, the, the, uh, example that you used of the smartwatch, it's the reason I'm using

a semi-smart watch right now with all notifications turned off because it would be that thing

when you sort of turned off your phone then that one would pick up where your phone left off

and it was sort of having the unintended effect that you were mentioning where it could

just hijack a moment and that's it's becoming harder and harder to protect those protect those

moments and so I was aware of it and actually put those devices away for that purpose now obviously

there are some people who manage it better and are able to have only the key notifications come through or they get that you get better at ignoring it But there is kind of a strange training process with those devices that by default out of the box they want to hit you

with everything and there's a there's a biological feedback to that buzz that pulls you back into the

sort of digital realm and outside out of the the real one it's fascinating look and you're right

people there's many people that manage it well there's many people that love it um and fall in

love with it which is cool like like for me that like as a as a team uh as a product maker as a

team of product makers like when somebody falls in love with your product and they need it that's awesome um and when they want it come on like you celebrate that for sure you made a difference but

but yeah you know this is it's just a concept and and it's uh it resonates when you tell me

it resonates when you talk about it it's cool that you picked up on it now another key difference

that I noticed with this product compared to some of the I guess you could maybe comparables that

are out there is that this device doesn't make a big deal of the camera in the same way that other

devices do I mean even if I'm looking at the Samsung folding product it's still got a huge

kind of massive camera hump on the back now for good reason in their case they're trying to have a

flagship level there's a zoom camera in there and it's just a huge focus for those devices

for most smartphones this one on the other hand kind of hides the camera well like a lot of the

other things when it's closed there's no nothing really staring back at you uh but obviously

there's a compromise there if you're going to have a tiny little camera module and only a single

camera unit, then some users, some potential buyers, that's going to be a consideration

for them. So what was the thinking behind that decision? Why not have some giant camera hump on the device

I think for the things you've already said, it's a good leading question and you've kind

of resolved it for yourself. The focus wasn't the camera, the focus was two screens side by side

And then once you start designing a product for that, you start realizing what's most important, which include the thinness, the elegance, the ability to fold it back, not getting caught in a wedge because there's a huge bump on the back of the product

And I can't put it in my pocket the way we just talked about. And really, is it about the camera

No. I mean, if you really wanted a premium camera, premium is not the right word. this is a premium camera and you can take some great pictures with it

but if you wanted to go speed feed, compare, you know, a master zoom class and kind of, you know

push the boundaries of cameras, uh, that's wasn't where we were going to put our energy. It was, it

it results in too many trade-offs on the product, um, from thinness to weight to what it's really being used for

which is the most important thing. And, uh, ultimately that 360 degree hinge then get compromised and then the principle

the product kind of goes starts to fall down and you realize you're chasing a

spec and don't get me wrong that spec you know or that camera more than a spec

that amazing cameras by the way on some of these devices like crazy cool tech

look it if it's important in the most critical thing for you if you're buying

a camera and there's a phone with it the awesome like there's plenty of products but it's also hard

when you say panels is it a phone i'm like once i say yes you're like well the camera sucks man

i'm like well that's a camera it was a phone but isn't it funny how phones and cameras are

synonymous with one another makes perfect sense uh and it's a need for many but really at the end

of the day the product takes great photos and it's amazing for front-facing camera which is

where we put our energy. Like you're going to be on a Teams call, a Zoom call. You're going to get

into any one of the apps you want that are two-way and WhatsApp. You're going to use Snap

Then we have a great front-facing camera. We're working on eye gaze. We're bringing it to Duo

So you're going to connect with the people even closer from Duo to Duo. We've got these amazing

focus areas that are about this experience. I should probably pick up my device, but it's about

this and you're uh when you as a team and as a as a group of product makers and and for myself it's

it is fundamentally like what is the one thing this product's going to deliver like you've got

to stay there you want to make a beautiful product you want that emotional moment you don't know how

delightful it was to watch you pull that thing out of the box and go whoa what is this that matters

man look that matters like it totally matters and and then the robustness you're talking about in the

feel like all that comes together seamlessly. And you know, there's some, there's moments where you

make decisions on what the product will be and what the product won't be. And to your point

when you kind of made that call, and I know, don't get me wrong, I've gotten plenty of feedback

It's, it's first thing I get asked. And what about my camera? I'm like, let's flip it backwards and

take a photo, then call me. And like, tell me how great of a photographer you are, like, and how

how much you really need. And if you need a high end high, you know, if you needed to go get like

um, true photography lessons or whatever it is, or go get the perfect photo, like

I think there's plenty of products that can do that for you. And I, I never, I would never talk bad about those products. I purposely don't use many of them because I don't

want to have an opinion, but I also, because I get asked a lot and it's better for me from a

genuine sense to not, you know, have to sugarcoat. But I think it's going to be for people when they

go to buy Duo or invest in it or be part of the Duo family or the Surface family. Yeah

and that'll be a decision point. Do I want the two screens? And do I want the productivity that

it brings? Do I want this adaptability? Do I want tent mode? Do I want to be able to sit on an

airplane and just fold this thing and watch it on this massive screen and beautiful? Do I want to

be able to keep it in my pocket and sit on this massive screen? All the things that you get

you'll have to ask yourself do i also but but i need the camera bump so what do i do now or do i

want the camera bump i'm just going to say that not to be rude just in simple form and that'll be

a trade-off that people have to make when they're when they're coming after this product but i think

you nailed it you know it's about about the thinness about the elegance about folding it's

about what the product was designed for to be used by people well it's all part of the relationship

it's all part of i mean in some ways the way you go on to use the device think about the device

talk about the device it it all depends on that initial interaction it's so true so true that's

why when you when you pull duo out of the box the first time uh i'm just i was anxious you know

well actually to be honest with you i think this device sort of requires real reactions

maybe more so than it requires the typical let's say review process and the reason being is because

the review process as we've seen it kind of emerge on the web and through video it sometimes

struggles with emotion and emotion is such a big part of uh sort of what we extract from these

devices and the work that goes into them and reviews on the other hand tend to look more

at a spec sheet, you know, being comprehensive. of getting all the details in but sometimes the details or a list of details doesn't properly

encompass a product and what it means or how it behaves and so pulling this out of the box and

capturing the initial moment of interaction is closer for me to how a potential customer should

think about it because holding it is different than seeing it yeah and that's a difficult thing

by the way to express or to put into a video there's no other way than capturing it live

and then it's up to the viewer to determine okay that's his reaction that's how he's feeling about

it that's his initial feedback and then they're closer to how the same experience might feel for

them. Yeah. I love, that's what I love about it. I think it's, it's genuine. Like more and more

people are emotionally connecting to the products that they're using for sure. I wouldn't say that

was the case, you know, seven years ago, but I would tell you now, like it's part of, it's part

of who we are. It's on us all the time. It's meaningful. And whether it's a PC or a phone

it matters. And we're starting to see it more. You're right. That emotional connection

I also believe in this a little bit, you know, I get here, I end up here every time, but

These products reflect the people that are making them. The team's going to put all its energy in

I want people to take all the energy out of it that use them. That's where you get a relentless team

That's where you get relentless people looking at every detail, and it matters. I don't want a rep to say sorry to you

Oh, I know. That part wasn't perfect. Sorry. But the rest is cool, right

That's like, man, it misses a point. But there's a hole in your shirt

Yeah, I know. But look at the rest of my shirt. And so there's just an element of truth to keeping people engaged, connected and kind of encompassed

But you're right. It's been hard to express, like, pick it up and feel it

Turn on the screens and look at them, you know, before you take the shot

And I don't get it. You know, it's it's missing this spec, this feed, this point that I needed

How could you possibly do that? Like just first pick it up and then read a book on it

Yeah, there's a thing about it. There's a kind of a balance

There's a balanced feeling when you hold it, which is very difficult to showcase in video

There's a lightness to it. Obviously, the insane thinness of it, which without a reference point to some other phone

just seeing the product images, it's hard to know how different that is

But that's sort of the aim, obviously, for me in my video

and having the reaction in there is to try to portray some of those intangible pieces

that are just tougher to write down. I think it's why you're having such a great impact

It matters. Right now, my kids, 20, 17, 14, they're watching creators like yourself

and they're leaning into the opinion because it's just genuine, it's real

So, you know, we don't read as much as we used to, maybe

Definitely. Like I know my kids they read their book at night and I love that But when they it but when they want info if they want to learn they moving to YouTube you know they moving to Insta

They're using, for me, you know, our team and my family, Edge, and getting all the web and just

getting the videos off there. Like, so this is just reality and it's fun to see. Actually

can I just say this? Like, it's really kind of a, it's an honor to be just talking to you today

Like it's humbling. It's super humbling and a little bit frightening. And also like I get to represent my team, the team, our team, like that team has killed themselves like in so many different ways. I guess that's a bad sense, but they put so much in and to be able to represent it is nice. So I appreciate you having me on

Cool. Yeah, of course. No, the feeling is likewise there. Appreciate having you here too. I think it's going to be insightful for a lot of audience members to sort of get your perspective and hear it from the other side because people who have been watching my videos, they always, well, they get to see the reaction

They get to see the ysis, but I'm always trying my best to come from a place of appreciation, come from a place of respect for the work that goes into something

Especially recently, the longer I've been doing this, the more I've been able to recognize how difficult it is to make things and especially to make things that are different or new

or to I mean this is a risk these these are these are risky moves and so I try to I try to put some

of that in there but ultimately having you on is is going to be the best way for people to get a

better sense of the behind the scenes the effort the energy the commitment and so forth anyway I

wanted to ask you one more thing just about the the decision to go with Android to create a to

have a relationship with google here i mean as a famous maybe the most famous software company

out there there was a windows phone uh there i remember first hearing about the courier project

i don't was that 2010 or something long long time ago i mean i've been kind of following the thing

along as many tech enthusiasts have and then you get to a point where i guess there's a

recognition and i mean i'm i don't want to put words in your mouth but that android is the thing

that's in people's pockets and that okay here we are as microsoft but we're going to have to

collaborate on this device i just want to hear a little bit more about the background on that i got a bunch of party lines for you if you want them but let me just spare you those and jump into

like background at the end of the day like even talking with sati we sat down we want to meet our

customers where they are. That sounds like a line, but it's not. It's true. It's just, it's real

Like that's where they are. And you don't want to reinvent that. There's no point at this point

They're there because the apps are there. And they're there because it's a great platform

It turns out, you know, Microsoft's one of the largest ISVs on Android, as it were. We have so

that are built for Android. And you put all that together and you're like

wow, let's make a great product. Well it just product So maybe it an Android OS It got our Microsoft energy into it And then fundamentally we optimizing the apps that people use from Microsoft on the product

We call it the best of Microsoft. And that was the design point for the product

It was the best of Microsoft and the Android you know. Let's put those together. And the dream there was, hey, would Google be interested in that

That's an interesting just a load. I didn't make that many friends when we started this process

It's not like everybody's like, this makes perfect sense. You should do this

It takes, I believe, a leader like Satya to push that envelope and say, we adopt all platforms for sure

Let's now practice what we're preaching. It's true. And making a product with another platform, that was a little bit, especially from the leader who runs Windows

I was like, that's, you know, I don't know that everybody was excited, but the truth is it's the product you need right now

And that's what I believe. It has the apps that you need. And Android is so flexible to help us with that adaptability for users

Like, it's super cool. Now, on top of that, it gives an extra focus on making the Microsoft properties on Android great

So, you know, think about Office. Think about Teams. think about it edge you know you can just go all the way down the list news to do one note all these

apps that come to life on android um even management apps for commercial customers like

there's just opportunity to get closer to the customer which by the way what surface did

a lot for windows was just get us closer to the lives that we want to change you know to hear what

people are saying like straight up and now we're going to get that same filter from duo and um

it's it's i don't know it's hard to say but it's the right platform for this product yeah point

people have android in their pocket it matters yeah and and what i think is funny enough

we've kind of we've been living in a space where and i've experienced this firsthand being on the

web talking about tech we've been living in a space where tech companies have to be enemies

and have to have their fans exclusively and their fans have to be at war with everybody

all the other fans and the it gets exhausting at a certain point and what might to some at first

glance be like okay they've made the concession here that you know this is some sort of point of

weakness or someone could perceive it that way but in reality it's it might be a strength

to be able to look at it and say and be honest and to start with the customer instead of maybe

pride, let's say. Yeah, I think it's fair. Let me give you two sides to that. Just because I need

to acknowledge what you said about fans, but I also want to just share that acknowledgement

Think about Microsoft's mission statement for a minute. It's we thrive on this. We believe in it

We want to empower every human and organization on the planet to achieve more. I mean, that's a

huge statement, but we're pretty, it's meaningful. It matters. Like, you know, having a mission in

that vision for who you are, what you want to be. And then but you can that matters and then translate to what you doing at work especially And to be able to say we have a mission that to help every human achieve more

Then take that. Then me talking about putting Duo on Android is not crazy

It's where people are. It's what we need. It's what will help that mission

So take a leader like me that gets very convicted in vision and where we're headed and patience on that journey

and you can kind of see Duo represent that. Pause. Go to fans for a minute

Dude, let's be clear. It is hard for me to read when one of my fans or a Microsoft fan

or a Windows fan sends me a note, you know, telling me what they think

You know, like the, what have you done? And then I only hope

like I hope they get the product and they use it and they go, oh my gosh, this is an awesome

a Microsoft product. It's a Microsoft product using an Android platform, but it's a Microsoft

product. You will feel surface. When you pick it up, you will know it's surface. And I think

our fans will be delighted once they start to understand. Connect that mission of empowering

everyone to achieve what they want to achieve and then connect it to this product and you can see it

like you can literally see it tie that to a fan sometimes there's a there's a few it believe me i

don't know if you do this but i try not to i read as much as i can to be respectful of the people

who put energy back into what i do i won't watch i won't watch this video i can't i won't read

articles that maybe i'm quoted and that's hard but i read my comments i read what fans are saying

because I have to stay connected to people using the products and it matters to me

But boy, I got to tell you, sometimes it's hard. You know, sometimes you get those moments

You're like, I think I want to just call this human. Which, by the way, early on, I tried a few times

Very bad idea. Very bad. Like, it doesn't scale. Yeah, well, you know what

I think you're going to make a lot of fans happy with this one. You have something special

You have something different. and believe it or not, that's in my job where I'm sort of always looking for that next thing

I'm looking to be inspired in what I do, in the videos that I shoot, in the devices that I

have the opportunity to interact with. This one sort of captured my imagination. It got me back

into the realm of thinking about futuristic computing devices, not necessarily being stuck

on the form factors that currently exist. Devices like this are the reason I got into this in the

first place. I mean, the kid version of me is alive and well when I get the opportunity to

interact with things like this. I want to thank you for joining us here and being a part of this

video. I think it's going to be really insightful to a lot of viewers out there, to Unbox Therapy

fans, to Microsoft fans. So thank you so much. And hopefully we can do this again sometime

Hey, I'm appreciative. I'm grateful. Like I said, it's humbling to be on here representing Microsoft. It's a big deal

You're doing a hell of a job, by the way. Thank you for spending the time with us. I'll be sure to pass a lot

of this through to the team so they can get the feeling and the filters that you've given us. I appreciate that

Awesome. You take care. You too