Sonos appoints Microsoft Surface head Panos Panay to its board

San Francisco, Aug 18 (IANS) High-tech speaker and audio technology company Sonos has appointed Panos Panay, chief product officer of Microsoft, to its board of directors.

The appointment comes at a time when Sonos is fighting a legal battle with Google, alleging that the search giant stole its technology and violated its patents.

Panay last week showcased Microsoft’s new Surface Duo dual-screen device that is built on Google Android.

“Panay brings extensive experience in building powerful and engaging consumer hardware products and experiences that customers love, at a global scale,” Mike Volpi, Sonos chairman of the board, said in a statement on Monday.

“His track record, along with his passion for Sonos, will make him an impactful contributor to the company’s ongoing success”.

As Microsoft’s chief product officer, Panay oversees the company’s Windows user experience and hardware development.

“Sonos is making some of the best consumer products out there by focusing on the end to end customer experience. I am excited to work with the board and to be part of what comes next,” said Panay.

Microsoft launched Surface Duo in the US starting at $1,399. Surface Duo connects two PixelSense Fusion Displays to create one expansive 8.1-inch screen.

The device offers Dual 5.6-inch OLED display, Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 chip, 6GB RAM (with two 128GB and 256GB RAM variants), a 3577mAh battery and runs Android 10.

“We built Surface Duo to give people Microsoft 365 mobile experiences, every Android app in the Google Play store, and a seamless cross-device experience with your Windows 10 PC,” said Panay.

–IANS

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