Interview: Panos Panay on the future of Amazon Kindle

Amazon launched four new Models this week, perhaps the biggest single launch day in the 17-year history of the company’s most successful e-reader. One of them even has color! It is no coincidence that the launch took place almost a year after Panos Panay joined the company. Panay, a longtime Microsoft executive who has overseen all things Windows and Surface for years, now leads Amazon’s devices and services team. His main work is Alexa, and turning Amazon’s assistant into the AI ​​platform of the future. That is apparently coming soon. It is possible. But first: e-readers.

In this episode of The VergecastPanay joins the show to talk about how he decided to join Amazon, why people love their Kindles so much, Author’s new note-taking features, that new color screen, and more. He also weighs in on the ongoing trend around distraction-free gadgets, and perhaps gives us a hint or two about future AI features.

If you want to know more about everything we discuss in this episode, here are the links to get you started, starting with the gadget news of the week:

And in the lightning round: