Surface defined 10 years of Windows PCs — can it nail the next 10, too?
, which might not be powered on the latest components but still has a wow factor with its 28-inch display that can move and float between desktop and drawing modes. This trio — tablet, laptop, and desktop — is what the Surface team hoped to launch 10 years ago.
The Surface team set out to create a formula for Windows tablets. At the time, Microsoft wasn’t just trying to bring its own hardware to life; it was also trying to make Windows on Arm a reality, adopting the battery-friendly mobile-style processors that Apple had proven could work in a larger form factor.
The Surface has unquestionably been a success for Microsoft. The line did more than $6 billion in revenue during Microsoft’s 2021 fiscal year, and the latest quarter saw revenue jump 13 percent. But along the way, the Surface team has sought to define what a next-generation formula might look like for other devices, too: laptops, phones, all-in-ones — even whatever tablets look like after the Surface.
Days after the news of the $1 billion write-down made headlines around the world, the Surface team of around 300 people was all standing in a lab they were still in the middle of building. Panay had called an all-hands meeting, and it was a tense moment for the team. It was another tough blow for the Surface team, just 18 months after the write-down. There were tears in the halls outside the meeting where the team was told of the decision to scrap the Surface Mini just weeks before it was supposed to launch. But the message from Panay to the team was similar to the write-down. “Grab your oars, let’s go. Wipe the tears. Check your goals. Let’s go.”