Zou Zuoji believes that some time ago, it was hardware-driven software. Now, how to use cloud and artificial intelligence technology to drive the development of hardware.
Author | Ouyang Weikang
Edit | Su Jianxun
The one-month folding dual-screen products Surface Neo and Surface Duo ushered in China’s “first show” yesterday.
On November 14th, Microsoft held two consecutive Surface conferences in Beijing. Microsoft’s chief product officer Panos Panay first demonstrated the two dual-screen products of Surface Neo and Surface Duo in China.
However, compared with the dual-screen Surface that has not yet been finalized and will not be available until around Christmas 2020, Microsoft hopes that the next-generation Surface products such as Surface Laptop 3, Pro 7, and Pro X will receive sufficient attention. According to Microsoft, Surface Business Edition integrates other enterprise services such as Windows 10 Enterprise, Office 365 Business, Dynamics 365, etc. In addition, Microsoft also introduced customization for the manufacturing, retail, financial, medical and other industries. Business application solutions.
Microsoft revealed that Microsoft’s vice president and China’s chief operating officer, Horace Chow, set up a special team on his direct reporting line to be responsible for the promotion and sales of Surface on commercial users. Have cloud sales experience.
Surface’s new “family barrel” (Source: Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay Weibo)
Zou Zuoji believes that Microsoft’s Surface evolved from the first generation to today’s multiple product lines including Go, Pro, Laptop, and Book. It is the result of learning customer application scenarios. The latest Pro X solves some industry applications. After the customer’s problem, Microsoft will cooperate with more medical, retail, manufacturing and other industry players, and there may be new product forms.
As a traditional cognitive software giant, from the original “cross-border” to the consumer PC launched Surface, and now clear SurfaCe’s productivity tool positioning, Zou Zuoji also denied Microsoft’s failure in the consumer market. He used Microsoft’s hybrid display product HoloLens as an example. Now, hardware innovation is often combined with software innovation, how to use cloud and artificial intelligence technology. Drive the development of hardware. The existence of Surface is a key part of Microsoft’s “Device + Service + Cloud Intelligence” solution.
The following is the end of the commercial Surface product after the release of Zou Zuoji, accepting a number of media groups including (without affecting the original intention) Edit adjustments):
Zou Zuoji, Vice President of Microsoft Corporation and Chief Operating Officer of China (Source: Live Shooting)
Talk about the Surface product line: Microsoft is not a poor performance in the consumer market before moving to productivity tools
Media:There is a view that Microsoft’s performance in the consumer market is not good, so what do you think about this problem when it comes to productivity and creativity?
Zou Zuoji:This market is very big. When we find that cloud, mobile and artificial intelligence have a lot of room for development, we will think that these can also be combined with hardware, so we Now take the lead. It’s not that we lost a market, Xbox we have been doing, and Microsoft has also taken up a lot of shares in the game market. Microsoft’s culture is technological innovation. Some of them may not be good. There are attempts to change in the middle, but we insist that if we don’t do well, we must persist and listen to the voice of our customers. Let it go.
Media: The Surface Book is absent from this Surface product update. What is the future positioning and development of the Surface Book?
Zou Zuoji: IThis time we released the products of the entire Surface, for example, Surface Studio, Surface Hub, we have not released, our Surface is not released every time all products are released, is a step by step. The Surface Book is not saying stop, this is definitely not. The Surface Book is a very good market, and the profession that needs a lot of data and powerful computing features especially favors the Surface Book.
Media: Does Microsoft consider launching a special version of the Surface for specific industries, such as adding reinforcement, waterproofing, and more?
Zou Zuoji: Frankly speaking, we don’t have this direction of development. Microsoft understands this. Under every industry, it is impossible for everyone to consider applications. There is no problem like putting it in the water for 100 meters. It will not be bad when it falls on the mountain. We have seen such computers and partners have done such computers, but this is not our current mainstream object. We are trying to meet the needs of different industries as much as possible, but there are some very special ones, and we also have partners to do it.
Talk about hardware ecology: Now hardware innovation is often combined with software innovation
Media:Since Neo and Duo debuted for the first half of the month, have developers, game makers or companies talked about it? Basic situation of the screen, is there any willingness to develop?
Zou Zuoji: In fact, every industry application may affect it. If you are financial or medical, what will the dual screen bring? What kind of double screen is used? Panos Panay said that one side of WeChat, one side of Weibo, everyone will imagine. But in the industry application, if you really want this thing, how to be a commodity in the industry is valuable, frankly I have not thought of it.
Just Panos Panay said, saying it is so early to give everyone the space to imagine, is to let everyone imagine. Frankly speaking, one and a half months is a very short time in the industry application. I think everyone has to digest it first. The first one is when this thing comes out, and the second is, in the customer’s scene, in How does the industry scene have a big impact on it?
Media:Windows10 on ARM is only supporting 32-bit X86 applications running as virtual machines. How to cut the enterpriseConfidence in switching to this platform? Things including Adobe’s family bucket, how to migrate to 64-bit ARM faster?
Zou Zuoji: This is a process. Frankly speaking, the development of every technology cannot be one step. Now we emphasize that under the application of the industry, when you have this demand, you may say that I have to make a choice. Surface Pro X won’t satisfy all the requirements, or else there won’t be other products. If you need ARM Base (ARM architecture-based products, such as this Surface Pro X, note), you also need a simple application, but it must be fast, and you have to support the power for a whole day, then you choose this, but not It may be said that an application can solve everything.
Media: What are the possibilities and principles of Microsoft’s new hardware in the future, or the search for productivity tools?
Zou Zuoji: Hardware innovation, I think it is very difficult. You have seen how many years have passed since the mobile phone. In fact, everyone does not have much innovation. Just let the camera take a better shot. There are three lenses and two lenses. You won’t take a mobile phone and others will feel “wow”. So it is not easy to recreate the so-called surprise. The release of HoloLens is surprising. Because everyone has not seen a thing that puts the virtual and real world together. Everyone is used to VR and AR. I think this time Surface Duo has a surprise for everyone, because everyone did not expect that people want to have one right away.
I think hardware innovation is often in line with software innovation, HoloLens is like this. Without the innovation of holographic imaging technology, there is no hardware without software. A few days ago, hardware was used to drive software. Now, how to use cloud and artificial intelligence technology to drive the development of hardware. So this border is very big, and the whole body is wearing an innovation that may be interesting in the future.
Talk about Surface Business Edition: Have an independent sales system to encourage customers to use with the cloud
Media: Will the emergence of Surface Pro X allow Microsoft to expand its use in commercial applications, in addition to education and healthcare? In other industries, will there be another form different from Surface Pro 7?
Zou Zuoji: Microsoft SurfAce is now the seventh generation. Why is it now that it has Surface Go, Surface Pro, Laptop, Book, Pro X? In fact, Microsoft has been learning the customer’s application scene during this time. When we did (Surface Pro), we found that not everyone likes it in the same enterprise environment. In fact, in every company and every company, you use Surface to pick some products you need. Pro X solves some of the customer feedback problems in the past industry applications. I believe that I can cooperate with more application vendors in the future, such as medical, retail, manufacturing, I believe Absolutely.
Media:Will the future drive the hardware sales model with software, or does Surface have some independent sales systems and strategies?
Zou Zuoji:Surface definitely has an independent sales system, especially with some of our partners, putting its application on the Surface, I think There is a lot of room in the manufacturing industry. Surface is now very mature in this era, and no one in the market has done everything we can. Of course, every product and equipment made by a friend is very good, and we do some features as much as possible.
Media: When sales people sell Microsoft cloud services, will they promote Surface products at a certain preferential price and promote the cloud business at a preferential price when promoting the Surface Business Edition? Is there such a strategy?
Zou Zuoji: Certainly, we often say that Microsoft has three clouds, the first one is Azure, the second one is Office 365, and the third one is Dynamics 365. If the customer uses these three clouds and the Surface at the same time, we will definitely give you a very good experience. We also encourage customers to connect these things, find a good effect, and find a good improvement. Money is of course very important, and the price is very important, but we always believe that value is the most important thing. It can bring the value that the customer really is and can enjoy. It is what we want to give to the customer. If I give you a very cheap price, but it is useless to bring value, a penny is also money. I also want customers to enjoy our entire hardware, cloud and software capabilities as much as possible.
(The cover image is from Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay Weibo)