Quality, Quality, Quality (Premium)

Microsoft’s Windows lead Panos Panay appeared virtually at Computex 2022 and had some interesting things to say about Windows 11 and the PC.

Panos, whose official title is, incredibly, Executive Vice President & Chief Product Officer, can be seen sitting at a desk, presumably in Redmond, alongside Nicole Dezen, Microsoft’s Corporate Vice President of Device Partner Sales. The discussion: the new era of the PC and how Windows 11 is empowering people in a hybrid world.

Here are some key takeaways, but only from what Panos said.

(Almost) one year of Windows 11

Microsoft “launched” (really, announced) Windows 11 in late June 2021 and then shipped it just three months later. So it’s obviously time for a victory lap.

“Let’s talk about the momentum,” Dezen begins.

“I think the whole team has been, it’s like this combination of feeling[s], you know, honored but really humbled by the customers’ reaction[s] to Windows 11,” he said when prompted about what has surprised him the most. “The energy is palpable. Again, from a data standpoint, people are accepting the upgrade offer at twice the rate we saw for Windows 10.”

That is an incredible number that I have trouble with.

With Windows 10, the upgrade offer was highly anticipated and desired because its predecessor, Windows 8, was so horrible. But Windows 11 is being compared to Windows 10, which was high quality. So this seems dubious to me, and I can only assume that it’s a minimal slice of data related to an initial wave of enthusiasts. It seems … literally impossible given the relative situations.

“Windows 10 had that great moment,” he said, dismissively. “But Windows 11 in its moment, next to it, you know, that’s where the team, it gets a lot of energy, because it knows we’re kind of driving in the right direction for our customers every day.”

Read: you shouldn’t expect any meaningful updates to Windows 10 going forward.

Business adoption of Windows 11

“Businesses right now, they’re adopting Windows 11 faster than we saw in any previous version of Windows,” he claimed.

Again, I have problems with this. I cannot believe that businesses are adopting Windows 11 faster than they adopted Windows 7, which arrived in the wake of Windows Vista. It’s literally impossible. My guess here is that he’s comparing the literal number of business users instead of the percentage, and that the market is now just bigger than it was in 2009. There’s no other way to believe this quote.

Quality of Windows 11

Another dubious statistic from a company that lives and breathes telemetry data.

“[Windows 11] has the highest quality scores,” Panos says. “Here’s the most important thing for our team. Quality, quality, quality. People using it are finding the quality in the product, which has just been awesome. That also translates to product satisfaction. It is the highest product satisfaction of any version of Windows we’ve ever shipped. So you kind of see that.”

The issue here is that “quality” isn’t just subjective, it’s unclear how it’s even measured or whether whatever quality score is even comparable to that of past versions. I don’t believe Windows 11 to be of high quality. Its missing features alone lower the quality of the experience. It’s a pretty but incomplete new UX on top of Windows 10.

New features

“But really the best part, the best part for me is just seeing the way people are using the new features, finding ways to be more productive, you know, working in kind of this, this new way,” he says, ignoring the people who can’t find the features they had before that are missing in Windows 11. “It really is, it really is incredible. Think about Snap Layouts. You see the usage on that. It’s just phenomenal. And it’s been a game changer for me personally and watching people just interact in and out of Windows 11. And it has been awesome. And since its launch, we continue to bring new features, not only improvements in quality and taking the feedback and listening to our customers, but new features.”

Windows 11 has had a most modest amount of change post-RTM and even version 22H2 won’t really add all that much.

“And for those of you maybe who haven’t seen the new features and just how they roll out, I mean, it’s quite seamless,” he adds.

Here, a promo video launches, showing off those new Windows 11 features, which are split between app updates and some actual OS updates like taskbar mute and live captions. I have an issue with Microsoft promoting Android app compatibility, however: it’s only in preview now, the app selection is terrible, and the experience is not at all seamless. The video also promotes widgets, despite there not being any third-party widgets at all.

“That’s Windows 11,” the video concludes. Yep. It is.

“I love that video,” Dezen adds.

A new era for Windows

Most people would correctly view Windows 11 as yet another feature update to Windows 10. Panos sees this differently.

“You know, Panos, recently I heard you say that the launch of Windows 11 was a new era for Windows,” Dezen says, queuing up the next topic. “Yeah, I would love to hear you say more about that.”

“That’s how we thought about it, even, remember when we were building Windows 11, we built it kind of in this hybrid world,” he responds. “And we are entering this new era of computing. Like right now. The world shifted right in front of all of us and it shifted and it’s a durable shift. There is a more hybrid way of working people are living differently with their PCs. The PC has become more essential to everything we are doing. You know this we have more than 1.4 billion users across the world.”

Having just covered this, I know that the figure cited at Build 2014 was 1.5 billion.

“That number continues to grow. And while the team was building Windows 11, like I just mentioned, from our homes our offices, our kitchens, living rooms, at the same time, we were figuring out how that product in the future will empower our customers in the new world as we are building it,” he continued. “And so it’s just kind of like this moment where a team can really kind of throttle the benefits of the product as they’re building it because they know exactly what’s needed because you’re living it. And at that point, Windows 11 became the first chapter in what is the development of a new kind of platform.”

I’d like to pause and try to understand what he means by that.

Presumably, the difference between Windows 10 and 11 in his eyes is this hybrid work design. Which … whatever. I don’t see how Windows 11 is “better” for the hybrid work model than is Windows 10.

Perhaps he means something a bit deeper, however. Windows 11 is stripped down and perhaps more similar to mobile platforms from a UX perspective. And maybe that’s the “new kind of platform,” one that not only supports a mobile app platform in UWP/Windows App SDK, but now in fact emulates its mobile competitors.

Here’s what he said. Compare this, if you will, to how Windows 10 works and whether it is any different.

“This is a product that adapts with you to all the changing circumstances of your days or weeks, your life, and a product that moves seamlessly between work, school, home, it’s designed for businesses,”
he says. “It works perfectly for individuals like Windows truly is for everyone. And that, I think, is the biggest challenge the team faces. Like, how do you continue to make this product great for everyone? And kind of every segment of the business and the business needs out there.”

“Since October, we’ve announced subsequent chapters like you saw in the video just now from the ability to switch between cloud and local desktops with Windows 365 and to the new features, redesigned the integrated apps, the integrated experiences,” he continued. “All these steps are part of the journey we’re on with Windows as we evolve with you, with all of you around the world, so we can keep building this product to meet your needs. And that really is the goal of this team. Like what do you need and how do we get it to you? Because it’s so important right now in this era of computing that we make the PC seamless in your life and that that is what hybrid is all about.”

Ah boy.

This is, of course, reminiscent of the College Humor parody video I recently referenced, this notion that the Windows team is somehow going to do everything that its customers ask. Which is, of course, ludicrous: since the first day we used Windows 11, there have been complaints about functional regressions that have been outright ignored.

Speaking of ignored, we’ll just skip over the questions Panay asks Dezen. If you want to learn about how Microsoft is “leading with empathy,” please, just watch the video.

Moving on.

What are you most proud of?

Yes, this was really a question.

“Okay, when I get asked this question, there’s not, there’s never just one thing I can pick, and that’s both because I, one, it’ll show my bias on a certain feature or a certain portion of the product, but also because, in essence, Windows 11 is a full system,” he said in his characteristically halting style. “It comes together as a package that’s so beautiful, from security to productivity to management. Um. It’s all critical, of course. And the team is proud of how all the experiences across those areas and just from a UX standpoint and engagement standpoint have become pillars of Windows 11.”

“I’m just watch[ing] how people are using the product right now, like, and how much they love it. That’s what we make these products for, we want people to love what they’re using. And of course, we don’t only love designing them, creating them, and making them, but watching our customers get into it and kind of pull that love out is so important. We continue to design features and products ultimately for that reason, like, for customers to just pull out what they need. The other thing that’s really important outside of that whole system coming together is the inclusive product-making that happens across the entire product.”

So. We have no idea what he’s most proud of. He somehow turned a softball question into that mess.

Accessibility

After crooning over accessibility, Dezen lobs Panos another softball. This one is not worth discussing: He loves the accessibility features in Windows 11. No one is complaining about that. It’s great.

Windows 365

Ditto. Nothing to see here.

PC demand

Quoting Intel’s Stu Pann, who said that the industry should plan for about a one million PC unit per day opportunity—or about 365 million units per year, in other words, compared to 344 million in 2021—Dezen asks Panos what he thinks about PC usage trends.

“The intensity of usage on the PC has gone up,” he says, which isn’t the same as usage going up, but whatever. “You will continue to see demand go up for PCs. [Demand for PCs has already fallen.] It’ll be cyclical. But because that structural increase has happened, we as an industry, we need to be ready to provide products for our customers. And you see them like the innovation in these products from all of our silicon partners, AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, from all of our device partners as they continue, and you saw the devices earlier, you saw them all. I mean, they’re amazing. But ultimately, it’s our job in this industry to be ready.”

It’s not hard for Microsoft to be ready: it doesn’t take much to deliver more software to PC makers. But it is those companies that really need to understand buying trends and, in this age of component shortages, plan accordingly.

“And, you know, there’s been enough challenges, of course, over the last two years. We’ve lived through them together. But there’s such an opportunity here to evolve the PC, the platform, the experience in a way that, you know, will, will deliver for generations to come.”

Secured-core PC and Pluton

After a summary of what Secured-core PC is, he simply says:

“We have awesome momentum with Secured-core PCs. Secured-core PC is now broadly supported by so many of our partners. I’m going to list them all. All right. Acer, Asus, Dell, Dynabook, Fujitsu, Getac, HP, Lenovo, LG, MSI, NEC, Panasonic, and Samsung as well as our silicon partners AMD, Intel, and Qualcomm.”

“Since we’re talking about security, let’s talk about Microsoft, Pluton security, and that processor,” he continued unprompted. And added after explaining what it is: “Partners like AMD and Qualcomm really leaned in to deliver on this innovation and its real impact. These Microsoft Pluton-powered PCs deliver advanced security down to the firmware level. A secure bio fingerprint reader and IR camera with privacy shutters support Windows Hello for secure logins. Every single model offers advanced connectivity with Wi-Fi 6 to ensure a smooth wireless experience and optional LTE support so business travelers can enjoy immediate connectivity wherever they are. We’re seeing great momentum with our device partners for these Pluton-powered PCs as well.”

Another view: the first Pluton adopters disabled it by default and Intel, Microsoft’s biggest silicon partner, thinks Pluton is superfluous.

And that was that.

It’s unclear what the point of this talk was, and it’s strange to me that Microsoft has yet to reveal a single hard number for Windows 11. Most obviously, how many Windows 11 PCs are out in the world? How many licenses have been sold? How many Windows 11-based PCs have been sold? How many Windows 10 users have upgraded for free? And so on. The only thing transparent about this video is that it’s only about marketing.