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Satya Nadella brought his Surface Pen to the Trump tech meeting

The great Trump tech summit of December 2016.
Image Credit: Sean Spicer/Twitter

Today President-Elect Donald Trump is holding a meeting with technology industry figureheads. Tesla’s Elon Musk, Tim Cook, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Alphabet’s Larry Page, Oracle’s Safra Catz, IBM’s Ginni Rometty, and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg are in attendance, along with Silicon Valley investor and Trump backer Peter Thiel.

Microsoft is represented by chief executive Satya Nadella and president and chief legal officer Brad Smith.

A photo of the meeting has emerged. It’s a wonderful photo. My favorite part is what’s in Satya Nadella’s left hand.

It’s a Surface Pen. Definitely.


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It’s not a smartphone, even though Nadella often speaks about how this world is mobile-first and cloud-first.

It’s also not a Surface. Brad Smith is clearly seen using a Surface. He may or may not be holding a Surface Pen in his right hand; the photo isn’t clear enough to show that.

Nadella and Surface Pen.

Above: Nadella and Surface Pen.

Image Credit: Screenshot

Tim Cook is not showing an iPhone. But Ginni Rometty does have an iPhone in front of her. It’s inside a Smart Battery Case.

The Surface Pen, though? Remember this. For Satya Nadella, the Surface Pen is mightier than the sword.