speaker-0: Welcome to Plugged In. Today, we are diving into the massive evolution of the Apple ecosystem and the rise of the AI-first enterprise. So to help us navigate this groundbreaking week from Apple, I'm thrilled to introduce a true Apple expert in the industry. Joining us from Insight Canada is their Apple practice lead, Jordan Link. For those who've never heard of Insight, Insight is a solutions integrator, not just a reseller. Jordan's role there is to help customers design, deploy and support Apple environments end to end from strategy and procurement through deployment, management and ongoing support. From the market disrupting launch of the MacBook Neo to the power of the M5 silicone driving for display workstations, join us as we break down why the right ecosystem is the essential foundation for the future of enterprise productivity. So Jordan, I'm happy to have you. Thank you so much for
speaker-1: Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm really excited to be here. Thanks for ⁓ that great introduction.
speaker-0: Yeah, it was like I want to hype them up. Yeah, super excited.
speaker-1: I don't think I've ever had an intro like that before. So it's pretty cool.
speaker-0: I need some background music like you're walking down a wrestling arena. Yeah. That's funny. So let's jump into the first question. So first, what is, I feel like we hear the term modern work so much lately. What does that mean to you? And then how does it relate to Insight and Plugable's collaboration together?
speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, it's a good question. And again, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. I think modern work, if you were to go into an office space and ask 10 of your colleagues, what does modern work mean to them? I think you might get 10 different answers, right? I think it's a pretty broad term. For me and my everyday work, think modern work means empowering people to do the best work of their lives. So wherever you are, you have the right technology at your fingertips. And it's not just about where you are, right? And a lot of instances where downtown of the office where it could be on the train coming back from the Apple office. We could be working from home, right? So I think modern work has obviously changed a lot over the years. I won't use the C word or COVID, but we've really changed over last three or four years. And I think part of that is being super productive wherever you are. I also think that Apple fits really well into this conversation, right? When we're talking about mobility and productivity, these are the core of what makes Apple, Apple. And you get so many great things out of Apple devices, right? You get amazing performance, you get great battery life. know, security is a huge thing for Apple and obviously for employers today. And beyond that, I think the continuity, right? When we look at not just Mac, but everyone has an iPhone in their hands, right? And if you have an iPad as well, just between all the devices, it really creates a great experience and reduces friction for... ⁓ and also makes it easier for IT teams to support a modern flexible workforce at scale. ⁓ I think at the end of the day, know, Insight and Plugable can work pretty great together in this forefront, whether it's Insight, you know, designing and managing the workplace experience, if it's device strategy, if we're talking about collaboration tools, like you name it, lifecycle services. And then Plugable obviously comes in with that complete holistic solution. So... turning a laptop into a full desktop or workstation, having an efficient mobile setup for when you are heading to the office on Tuesday. I think there's a great kind of combination there between the both. And at the end of the day, we wanna be trusted advisors. We don't wanna be somebody who's hands off a box or a device or a peripheral and say, okay, good luck. We wanna really start from the beginning to end understand what those needs are. and then let the technology kind of fade in the background and let people be the best versions of themselves. So that's what I think modern work is. But again, I think there's a lot of different definitions for what it could be.
speaker-0: Yeah, we're going through so much change right now that I feel like it's evolving what's on people's desks and what that looks like. So, yeah, so let's talk about what's on people's desks. So Apple made a huge announcement with the Neo. And so I'm curious from your perspective, obviously, you talked to a lot of customers and people about Apple devices. So what is this new 599 USD 799 CAD price point? How does it address any pent up demand in the education and enterprise space now?
speaker-1: So first of all, I think this MacBook Neo is super exciting. I think it's a major milestone for Mac overall. I think if you look back in the history of Apple devices, we've never really seen a device come in at this price point. So I think I'm excited. I know our customers are really excited. I can tell you my inbox has been flooded over the last two weeks with interest in this device. So yeah, of course, the 799 price point is big because it addresses a bigger barrier for Mac adoption at scale. I think especially in education and even entry level enterprise roles, the Neo kind of changes that conversation entirely by putting that in a conversation with other budget friendly devices, not to put down Chromebooks or Windows laptops, but ⁓ like... This is an area where Apple can play now. And I think customers are really curious to understand what does this mean for them and how does it change kind of how they deploy devices overall within their environment. I think there's always been demand for Mac and education. Like I don't think there's been a situation where somebody doesn't necessarily want to deploy Mac, but I think it was an affordability piece overall for that. And I think it opens the door for... classroom level adoption instead of having limited Mac adoption within a school, right? So instead of having just dedicated to labs or specialty programs, this can really be offered more broadly. And I think it's really exciting. I also think Apple's, like beyond just price, think Apple's been super intentional about this. If you look at high school students or even like post-secondary education students, a lot of those folks are carrying iPhones, right? A lot of them have are used to iPhone, they have iPads at home, their moms have iPads at home. And I think it's not just addressing pent up demand, but it's also shaping a long term workforce. That's creating this familiarity. And again, we're already seeing that across our business customers. We're seeing more more young people come into the workplace and they're asking for a Mac. And so I think this is part of that overall ⁓ journey for Apple and for students and teachers alike.
speaker-0: Yep. I was one of those people. remember years ago, I was using my iPad to take notes and college classes. And then I had my, my MacBook Pro at home that I used for all of my work. then actually the first week I started at Plugable, our ⁓ owner handed me a Chromebook and I was like, I don't know what to do with this. Like I cannot function. So you're spot on. think it's a point. People have iPhones in their hands and younger people coming into the workforce are going to have this expectation of Mac. And that price point has been difficult for people to deploy at larger scales in the past. And now it's become more accessible. yeah, I agree.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: So let's talk about ⁓ the M5 chips and some big announcements that also came there as well. So with the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips now supporting up to four external displays, which is the first time that this is possible, how is that changing enterprise workstation setups?
speaker-1: I think first of all, think some customers have PTSD. think, ⁓ you know, if we look back to the early days ⁓ when the early Apple Silicon Macs, especially for power users, only supported one display, there's a lot of ⁓ history there. I think we've had customers reaching out to me at that point being like, hold on a second, one monitor? Really? Are you kidding me right now? Obviously that is very much in the past. You know, we're seeing with the M5 Pro and M5 Max, like you said, supporting four external displays, the MacBook Air supporting two external displays, that barrier has been completely removed. ⁓ Macs sit in a high-performance, multi-screen environment for tons of different use cases. ⁓ And what we're seeing, at least across our customer base, is we're really trying to showcase MacBook Air as a great device, a great enterprise device for customers. Again, not because of necessarily the affordability, it's an affordable device. But there's all these other things that come along with it, the residual value. ⁓ Again, the applications you can use on this thing, runs all the Microsoft apps, no problem. I think in a lot of these knowledge worker kind of ⁓ roles, the MacBook Air is perfect. So it was a very exciting announcement. The external display piece I think is huge. ⁓ know, pluggable I think. has a big part in this too with Apple, customers want like a simple desk setup. When I have my desk set up here, don't minimal cords, I want it clean, don't want cables here, there and everywhere. And I think this Thunderbolt doc from, or Thunderbolt doc from Plugable addresses that, whether it's peripherals for charging, you name it. And I think also it's changing the conversation a little bit around can a Mac do the job for me versus you know, which MacBook Air or which Mac is going to be best for what I'm trying to accomplish and which pluggable solutions can I pair with that to make my life easier when I'm working every day. So I think it was a really exciting announcement. I love the fact that Apple's come out with some new devices and obviously some new features that came along with the M5 chips.
speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're obviously excited over here at Plugable, like the ability to add more screens and displays. Nobody wants to be plugging four different cables into each side, like their laptop. then, and especially if you're using a laptop, you want to be able to unplug and go with one, one cable. then even outside of that, like the ability to do two displays now on the air, not having to be in clamshell mode anymore, like the support tickets of being like, why isn't this working? ⁓ you actually have to close your MacBook. is such a weird, nuanced thing in the past that has now been fixed. yeah, we're excited about the user experience. I think it's going to make everyone a lot happier.
speaker-1: 100%. 100%.
speaker-0: Yeah, so when we talk about ports and on the side of the laptop. obviously Thunderbolt 5 ⁓ is now on the sides of the the pro. So ⁓ what does that mean to you? I guess in your users in terms of bandwidth and resolution.
speaker-1: Yeah, think, you know, Thunderbolt 5 to me wasn't the most shiny, like, update that came out from Apple. think, you know, if you're a Mac geek like me, like, obviously this is very exciting. I think if you work with Plugable, this is also very exciting. But I think for a lot of folks, it was something that maybe was an afterthought, and I could be wrong, like, you know, sue me. But I think at the end of the day, there are some big changes that come with Thunderbolt 5 that kind of take the spotlight away from. Thunderbolt 4 and really it's really about power, right? Bandwidth from previous generations, being able to support display intensive and data intensive workloads on a monitor. You know, I kind of like to think about Thunderbolt 5 as going from a four lane highway to an eight lane highway, right? And how many more cars you can fit and how much faster you can go. This is exactly kind of what it's offering. You know, being able to connect it. about multiple 8K displays at high speed storage, again, all through a single cable, I think it is pretty impressive. And I think if we look at our customers, IT wants future-proofing. We're always thinking about how can they future-proof their environment? And I think when you're investing in monitors, docs, office build-outs, when you're refreshing computers, whatever they are, they want to make sure that the infrastructure they have can support what's coming next. And I think... Thunderbolt 5 gives you a lot of headroom and it helps you standardize on a workstation design. it obviously, at the end of the day, it reduces complexity for IT, not to worry about what's next for them.
speaker-0: On our side, like we've been talking about Thunderbolt 5 and like the Intel announcement last year, but there really hasn't been a lot of like in practice. This is how you can use and take advantage of Thunderbolt 5 until now. And so, yeah, we're excited. And obviously, yes, we do have a handful of Thunderbolt 5 docs. We have some more coming out this year that are actually going to allow people to take advantage of this bandwidth and resolution advances. so, Yeah, in the past it's been very theoretical of like, this is coming and there's not really not much we can do about it right now, but it's here. And like you said, future-proofing is so important and this is ⁓ a perfect way for people, think, to get ahead and be able to ⁓ standardize on devices that are going to be able to do what they need for a long time, which is great.
speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, couldn't agree more.
speaker-0: So we talked about prices a little bit when we were talking about Neo. We've been seeing prices rising across the board for pretty much anything around PCs. So why do you think enterprises are moving towards Macs now?
speaker-1: Well, I think it's been a really unique start to the year. And I'm not sure we were hearing rumblings about this in the fall about price increases coming. But I think when they when they started coming, everyone pulled it. This is is this is real. You know, Insights calling it Remageddon, right? Where there's a memory shortage. People are really concerned about this price increases. ⁓ I think, you know, when we see price increases across the board, across OEMs, Enterprise focus is starting to shift from what the upfront cost is to what total cost of ownership and long-term value actually means for them. And Mac has a really strong story here, right? ⁓ Mac has less IT tickets. They have really strong built-in security from day one. And when we're talking about ⁓ residual value, I think that's also a huge story here when we're talking about price increases in the market where A lot of customers I work with don't realize that their three year old Mac still worth tons of money. Like that Mac is probably still worth 30 % of what they paid the ticket price for. So when you consider that and you consider a partner like Insight, we can be very creative on what that looks like. We can take that residual value off the front of your purchase. We can look at redeployment. We can do a lot of different things for customers in this unique kind of ⁓ ever changing price increases across the board. And I think it adds value for customers to know that they're not only getting a device, but a device that's worth something at the end of three years. And I think it's really timely for the MacBook Neo to be coming in when all these price increases are happening. It's, again, we're seeing a ton of demand, a ton of requests to understand, you what can the MacBook Neo do? I have customers looking to test it in their environment. And even though the device only has eight gigs of of unified memory and 256 gigs SSD, a lot of the time this is all you need to get your work done depending on what your role is in your organization. And I think also it's now is the best time than ever to start considering offering Mac as choice if you haven't done it before, where offering Mac does a whole lot more for your organization. It improves workplace satisfaction, productivity goes up. And then we think about retaining the best talent in the market. know, like we were talking about earlier, the younger generation coming into the workplace are going to be expecting a MacBook to work on. So if you're not offering that today, you put yourself at a disadvantage as an employer ⁓ in the market. I really don't think it's, again, it's not Mac versus PC. not, you know, not getting the boxing gloves out and looking to come after all the PC, you know. buyers, but I think what we are looking to do is say, well, hold on a second, why not a Mac? Right? If price isn't the consideration anymore, you know, a of modern workplaces are offering Mac OS choice. Insight offers Mac OS choice. can tell you, I wouldn't, you know, when I started, I was offered a Mac but pro and I was thrilled. Right? So it's important. And I think it's an opportunity for us to have more conversations with customers.
speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, you say Mac is choice. So ⁓ explain to me a little bit about these choice programs, especially for like the MacBook Neo and the MacBook Air in Quebec education. I don't really have too much background there, so would love to learn more.
speaker-1: For sure, for sure. think ⁓ education customers are really excited right now. Like this Neo's come out and we're seeing a lot of thought leadership go into what does this look like over the next two or three years for our organization where our budgets haven't necessarily ⁓ been there for a more expensive Mac device. But I think it's bigger than that. I think there's been a big shift that Mac isn't a niche or special request device anymore. And I think MacBook Neo and MacBook Air create a practical kind of two tier strategy where you're addressing a cost sensitive deployment, but you're also giving high performance needs to those who need it. So MacBook Neo enables organizations to ⁓ broadly adopt that device where MacBook Air is a little more powerful, can support educators, staff. advanced users with performance and a great thin and light form factor for putting in your backpack every single day. So I think these are the things that are the conversations that are happening in the background. And I think more than that is Apple as a platform brings a lot of tangible value for both teachers and students. If you think about supporting workflows and reducing friction and keeping instruction moving, if we think about ⁓ some of the feature sets within Mac, like AirDrop, not having to rely on a bulky USB drive or whatever it might be or an email to get something from one device to another. ⁓ Or continuity, like I've been talking about today is the overall ecosystem is really important for productivity. And I think for teachers, they really value this. And then students, again, students are doing a ton of stuff every day. They're writing, they're coding, they're doing multimedia projects, they're doing collaborative work. I mean, all these things fall well in line with Mac. ⁓ And not only that, the accessibility tools that are available, like voiceover, dictation, ⁓ live captions, it helps address diverse learning needs without additional software. And it really does offer the equity and inclusion at scale. So I really think that's what educators in our education clients seem to think about when we're looking at a device like the MacBook Neo or MacBook Pro. But overall, really exciting. We have a new public sector lead actually who was brought on a few months ago. ⁓ So he's all bought in on Mac and we're excited to see where we can take it.
speaker-0: That's awesome. I love that you like think about all the use cases and how and where the product is going to be like the laptop is going to be used and in what ways. And so when somebody comes to you and they say like, I want 100 MacBooks, like something you said earlier is I want a thousand.
speaker-1: Box.
speaker-0: Yeah, what what are you like, like you said, anyone can sell a box. So yeah, what are they really asking for when they come with that kind of request?
speaker-1: You know, I think it's easy to say, okay, great, Mr. customer, many and what color, right? And I'll take a P.O. tomorrow. ⁓ I think when a customer asks for hundred MacBooks, they're not really asking for hardware. They're asking for a hundred productive users on day one, right? And that means devices are configured or secured. They're enrolled in Apple School Manager. They're integrated with their... device management tools and they're ready to go. Right. So I think that's, that's a big piece of, of being a trusted advisor is really understanding of what are you trying to accomplish when you buy a hundred Mac books and what, things need to happen for this to be successful. And then what happens after deployment, like how are repairs handled? What's your downtime strategy? Who owns life cycle support? ⁓ I think that's where we differentiate. in Canada, we're very unique in that we're an Apple authorized service provider. ⁓ And what this means is customers don't need to go down to the mall and send an employee to wait at the Genius Bar and wait however long it might take to get that device fixed. listen, I'm nothing against retail. I worked there for many years. It's a great environment, but it's not great for business customers, right? And I think... This is part of the overall story is, you know, if customer is buying a hundred MacBooks and let's say one or two go down within that first year, you want to know you have a partner that can support you and get you a device same day or next day without having to, you know, find a parking spot at Christmas time, right? Trying to, you know, battle with people just because your device went down. So I think that's really important. And we have a lot of success stories to share around this, right? And actually, just hot off the press, just released a success story with WestJet. So if you haven't seen this yet, go check it out. I'll be posting on my LinkedIn. It'll be on our insight.ca page, but everything kind of I'm talking about is outlined pretty nicely in that video and we're definitely.
speaker-0: So how does Plugable and Insight work together really as those trusted advisors to help customers find the right environment fit?
speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, I think, like, just simply put, like, we can be superheroes for our customers, right? We can really do it all between our partnership with Insight and Plugable. I think jumping on a call with a customer, really understanding what use cases exist out there today, what pain points can Plugable and Insight solve together for, you what future plans maybe do organizations have, ⁓ what's driving change, is there an AI story? ⁓ that customers are trying to learn from. So I think between Plugable's AI story, Insight's AI story, there's a lot there. ⁓ And again, leading with purpose. So really just understanding what user personas exist out there today. Insight can do a great job of understanding what security requirements you might need, what business outcomes you're trying to solve for. And I think Plugable ensures that the day-to-day experience actually works. You built... really reliable and purpose-built peripherals. And there's a reason why someone chooses a pluggable device over another. So I think together we're getting customers the right stuff, if you will, and from a credible and trusted partner.
speaker-0: Yeah. So we started talking about at the start of this, all things modern work and what does modern work mean and how so much is changing Apple releasing new devices that now kind of unlock new, new customers and partners that we could be working with. so here at Plugable, obviously we've, we've leaned into so many things being AI first. I know insight is the same exact way. So ⁓ how is insight using Horizon to change seller customer interactions?
speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, I'll tell you, AI is really exciting, right? It's really exciting to be part of this. It's really exciting to work for an AI first company like Insight. I think my workflow and the way I work every day has changed completely. And I'm almost becoming bionic. I'm almost part of my Mac now. My arm is almost plugged into my docking station, my pluggable docking station, because I'm using it every... you know, every second I can. And I know there was a saying, you know, people were really worried about AI replacing people and replacing roles and jobs. Whereas that's not the case. It's really around. If you're not learning every day around AI and how to leverage these tools, someone else will. Right. So my dad would say it's moving day and you got to pack up your boxes and you can't be, you know, you can't be still. I think that's exactly what's happening. I think at Insight, we've decided to start to be client zero first on AI before even advising customers on the entire platform. So Horizon is our internal AI platform. It's the foundation of that strategy. ⁓ But it's fundamentally changed how, not just me, but our sellers prepare for engagements with customers. Like you can think about how quickly sellers now can uh, get relevant case studies, draft proposals, uh, tailor messaging based on what they're trying to accomplish. Um, and I think the biggest thing is that, you know, what used to take days is taking minutes. Um, and so it's, it's pretty crazy how fast we're ramping up with this. And I think for insight, because we use AI daily ourselves, our team shows up with a ton of credibility. Um, they can speak from, they can speak to, uh, you know, experience and adoption. They can speak to the governance around it, some of the pitfalls maybe that we've seen, and not just quote unquote theory. And it just improved efficiency, it's strengthened trust in our everyday customer conversation. And I can tell you for me, it's been a major game changer. So I'm excited to see where things go. is obviously for early days, but this will be something that comes up more and more as we work with our customers.
speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. The shift that's happening in the world. And we take the same approach here at Pugable where we're doubling down. I don't even quadrupling down on AI internally. And that that's helping us better understand our customer needs as well. If they have these quad monitor setups that are running AI agents and yeah. So it's super exciting to be a part of all of it. And I think making us better partners by. by being AI first.
speaker-1: not going to be more it's ⁓ it's a very exciting time it's it's scary but it's exciting right and it's important to embrace it rate so
speaker-0: Yeah. So I have one more question for you as an Apple guy. I'm so curious, like what's on your desk? Like what, like, I know you probably have all or have tested and tried all the Apple stuff. Like what actually stays on your desk?
speaker-1: So I like to keep my desk really simple. I have a MacBook Pro connected to a monitor. I have a pluggable dock. And of course I have an iPhone Air, which I just got. I'll show you how thin this device is, if I can get the case off. I don't know if you can see how thin this device is, but it's, I mean, that is just incredible, right? So have an iPhone Air, MacBook Pro.
speaker-0: person yet.
speaker-1: I have a Vision Pro actually in my closet. I got demo gear for customers. So ⁓ yeah, I keep it simple though. I don't like clutter. know, MacBook display, ⁓ keyboard, mouse, you know, good to go.
speaker-0: ⁓ Are you a Magic Mouse user or are you anti?
speaker-1: So ⁓ I would love to be a Magic Mouse user. had one of our partners at my company offer me a space gray Logitech mouse. yeah, that's it.
speaker-0: I mean, a little bit more ergonomic probably than the Apple Mac.
speaker-1: Yeah, no, ⁓ listen, it's great. My setup's good. I love it.
speaker-0: I love that you might have sold me on the air. I'd be nervous about dropping it though, so light and thin.
speaker-1: Well, I got AppleCare on it, even by dropping it, it's fine. Let's get it replaced.
speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time. I really appreciate it. I learned a lot. Yeah, it's really nice to kind of get out of Plugable for a little bit and kind of understand your Apple world. I wish I got to live in the Apple world all the time. I'm a big Apple fan, so. Yeah.
speaker-1: Yeah, no, it's been great. Thank you for having me on and thinking of me. It's very flattering and ⁓ yeah, I'm sure you'll be in touch and we'll talk more.
speaker-0: Thanks for watching.
speaker-1: Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm really excited to be here. Thanks for ⁓ that great introduction.
speaker-0: Yeah, it was like I want to hype them up. Yeah, super excited.
speaker-1: I don't think I've ever had an intro like that before. So it's pretty cool.
speaker-0: I need some background music like you're walking down a wrestling arena. Yeah. That's funny. So let's jump into the first question. So first, what is, I feel like we hear the term modern work so much lately. What does that mean to you? And then how does it relate to Insight and Plugable's collaboration together?
speaker-1: Yeah. Yeah, it's a good question. And again, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here. I think modern work, if you were to go into an office space and ask 10 of your colleagues, what does modern work mean to them? I think you might get 10 different answers, right? I think it's a pretty broad term. For me and my everyday work, think modern work means empowering people to do the best work of their lives. So wherever you are, you have the right technology at your fingertips. And it's not just about where you are, right? And a lot of instances where downtown of the office where it could be on the train coming back from the Apple office. We could be working from home, right? So I think modern work has obviously changed a lot over the years. I won't use the C word or COVID, but we've really changed over last three or four years. And I think part of that is being super productive wherever you are. I also think that Apple fits really well into this conversation, right? When we're talking about mobility and productivity, these are the core of what makes Apple, Apple. And you get so many great things out of Apple devices, right? You get amazing performance, you get great battery life. know, security is a huge thing for Apple and obviously for employers today. And beyond that, I think the continuity, right? When we look at not just Mac, but everyone has an iPhone in their hands, right? And if you have an iPad as well, just between all the devices, it really creates a great experience and reduces friction for... ⁓ and also makes it easier for IT teams to support a modern flexible workforce at scale. ⁓ I think at the end of the day, know, Insight and Plugable can work pretty great together in this forefront, whether it's Insight, you know, designing and managing the workplace experience, if it's device strategy, if we're talking about collaboration tools, like you name it, lifecycle services. And then Plugable obviously comes in with that complete holistic solution. So... turning a laptop into a full desktop or workstation, having an efficient mobile setup for when you are heading to the office on Tuesday. I think there's a great kind of combination there between the both. And at the end of the day, we wanna be trusted advisors. We don't wanna be somebody who's hands off a box or a device or a peripheral and say, okay, good luck. We wanna really start from the beginning to end understand what those needs are. and then let the technology kind of fade in the background and let people be the best versions of themselves. So that's what I think modern work is. But again, I think there's a lot of different definitions for what it could be.
speaker-0: Yeah, we're going through so much change right now that I feel like it's evolving what's on people's desks and what that looks like. So, yeah, so let's talk about what's on people's desks. So Apple made a huge announcement with the Neo. And so I'm curious from your perspective, obviously, you talked to a lot of customers and people about Apple devices. So what is this new 599 USD 799 CAD price point? How does it address any pent up demand in the education and enterprise space now?
speaker-1: So first of all, I think this MacBook Neo is super exciting. I think it's a major milestone for Mac overall. I think if you look back in the history of Apple devices, we've never really seen a device come in at this price point. So I think I'm excited. I know our customers are really excited. I can tell you my inbox has been flooded over the last two weeks with interest in this device. So yeah, of course, the 799 price point is big because it addresses a bigger barrier for Mac adoption at scale. I think especially in education and even entry level enterprise roles, the Neo kind of changes that conversation entirely by putting that in a conversation with other budget friendly devices, not to put down Chromebooks or Windows laptops, but ⁓ like... This is an area where Apple can play now. And I think customers are really curious to understand what does this mean for them and how does it change kind of how they deploy devices overall within their environment. I think there's always been demand for Mac and education. Like I don't think there's been a situation where somebody doesn't necessarily want to deploy Mac, but I think it was an affordability piece overall for that. And I think it opens the door for... classroom level adoption instead of having limited Mac adoption within a school, right? So instead of having just dedicated to labs or specialty programs, this can really be offered more broadly. And I think it's really exciting. I also think Apple's, like beyond just price, think Apple's been super intentional about this. If you look at high school students or even like post-secondary education students, a lot of those folks are carrying iPhones, right? A lot of them have are used to iPhone, they have iPads at home, their moms have iPads at home. And I think it's not just addressing pent up demand, but it's also shaping a long term workforce. That's creating this familiarity. And again, we're already seeing that across our business customers. We're seeing more more young people come into the workplace and they're asking for a Mac. And so I think this is part of that overall ⁓ journey for Apple and for students and teachers alike.
speaker-0: Yep. I was one of those people. remember years ago, I was using my iPad to take notes and college classes. And then I had my, my MacBook Pro at home that I used for all of my work. then actually the first week I started at Plugable, our ⁓ owner handed me a Chromebook and I was like, I don't know what to do with this. Like I cannot function. So you're spot on. think it's a point. People have iPhones in their hands and younger people coming into the workforce are going to have this expectation of Mac. And that price point has been difficult for people to deploy at larger scales in the past. And now it's become more accessible. yeah, I agree.
speaker-1: Yeah.
speaker-0: So let's talk about ⁓ the M5 chips and some big announcements that also came there as well. So with the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips now supporting up to four external displays, which is the first time that this is possible, how is that changing enterprise workstation setups?
speaker-1: I think first of all, think some customers have PTSD. think, ⁓ you know, if we look back to the early days ⁓ when the early Apple Silicon Macs, especially for power users, only supported one display, there's a lot of ⁓ history there. I think we've had customers reaching out to me at that point being like, hold on a second, one monitor? Really? Are you kidding me right now? Obviously that is very much in the past. You know, we're seeing with the M5 Pro and M5 Max, like you said, supporting four external displays, the MacBook Air supporting two external displays, that barrier has been completely removed. ⁓ Macs sit in a high-performance, multi-screen environment for tons of different use cases. ⁓ And what we're seeing, at least across our customer base, is we're really trying to showcase MacBook Air as a great device, a great enterprise device for customers. Again, not because of necessarily the affordability, it's an affordable device. But there's all these other things that come along with it, the residual value. ⁓ Again, the applications you can use on this thing, runs all the Microsoft apps, no problem. I think in a lot of these knowledge worker kind of ⁓ roles, the MacBook Air is perfect. So it was a very exciting announcement. The external display piece I think is huge. ⁓ know, pluggable I think. has a big part in this too with Apple, customers want like a simple desk setup. When I have my desk set up here, don't minimal cords, I want it clean, don't want cables here, there and everywhere. And I think this Thunderbolt doc from, or Thunderbolt doc from Plugable addresses that, whether it's peripherals for charging, you name it. And I think also it's changing the conversation a little bit around can a Mac do the job for me versus you know, which MacBook Air or which Mac is going to be best for what I'm trying to accomplish and which pluggable solutions can I pair with that to make my life easier when I'm working every day. So I think it was a really exciting announcement. I love the fact that Apple's come out with some new devices and obviously some new features that came along with the M5 chips.
speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're obviously excited over here at Plugable, like the ability to add more screens and displays. Nobody wants to be plugging four different cables into each side, like their laptop. then, and especially if you're using a laptop, you want to be able to unplug and go with one, one cable. then even outside of that, like the ability to do two displays now on the air, not having to be in clamshell mode anymore, like the support tickets of being like, why isn't this working? ⁓ you actually have to close your MacBook. is such a weird, nuanced thing in the past that has now been fixed. yeah, we're excited about the user experience. I think it's going to make everyone a lot happier.
speaker-1: 100%. 100%.
speaker-0: Yeah, so when we talk about ports and on the side of the laptop. obviously Thunderbolt 5 ⁓ is now on the sides of the the pro. So ⁓ what does that mean to you? I guess in your users in terms of bandwidth and resolution.
speaker-1: Yeah, think, you know, Thunderbolt 5 to me wasn't the most shiny, like, update that came out from Apple. think, you know, if you're a Mac geek like me, like, obviously this is very exciting. I think if you work with Plugable, this is also very exciting. But I think for a lot of folks, it was something that maybe was an afterthought, and I could be wrong, like, you know, sue me. But I think at the end of the day, there are some big changes that come with Thunderbolt 5 that kind of take the spotlight away from. Thunderbolt 4 and really it's really about power, right? Bandwidth from previous generations, being able to support display intensive and data intensive workloads on a monitor. You know, I kind of like to think about Thunderbolt 5 as going from a four lane highway to an eight lane highway, right? And how many more cars you can fit and how much faster you can go. This is exactly kind of what it's offering. You know, being able to connect it. about multiple 8K displays at high speed storage, again, all through a single cable, I think it is pretty impressive. And I think if we look at our customers, IT wants future-proofing. We're always thinking about how can they future-proof their environment? And I think when you're investing in monitors, docs, office build-outs, when you're refreshing computers, whatever they are, they want to make sure that the infrastructure they have can support what's coming next. And I think... Thunderbolt 5 gives you a lot of headroom and it helps you standardize on a workstation design. it obviously, at the end of the day, it reduces complexity for IT, not to worry about what's next for them.
speaker-0: On our side, like we've been talking about Thunderbolt 5 and like the Intel announcement last year, but there really hasn't been a lot of like in practice. This is how you can use and take advantage of Thunderbolt 5 until now. And so, yeah, we're excited. And obviously, yes, we do have a handful of Thunderbolt 5 docs. We have some more coming out this year that are actually going to allow people to take advantage of this bandwidth and resolution advances. so, Yeah, in the past it's been very theoretical of like, this is coming and there's not really not much we can do about it right now, but it's here. And like you said, future-proofing is so important and this is ⁓ a perfect way for people, think, to get ahead and be able to ⁓ standardize on devices that are going to be able to do what they need for a long time, which is great.
speaker-1: Yeah, yeah, couldn't agree more.
speaker-0: So we talked about prices a little bit when we were talking about Neo. We've been seeing prices rising across the board for pretty much anything around PCs. So why do you think enterprises are moving towards Macs now?
speaker-1: Well, I think it's been a really unique start to the year. And I'm not sure we were hearing rumblings about this in the fall about price increases coming. But I think when they when they started coming, everyone pulled it. This is is this is real. You know, Insights calling it Remageddon, right? Where there's a memory shortage. People are really concerned about this price increases. ⁓ I think, you know, when we see price increases across the board, across OEMs, Enterprise focus is starting to shift from what the upfront cost is to what total cost of ownership and long-term value actually means for them. And Mac has a really strong story here, right? ⁓ Mac has less IT tickets. They have really strong built-in security from day one. And when we're talking about ⁓ residual value, I think that's also a huge story here when we're talking about price increases in the market where A lot of customers I work with don't realize that their three year old Mac still worth tons of money. Like that Mac is probably still worth 30 % of what they paid the ticket price for. So when you consider that and you consider a partner like Insight, we can be very creative on what that looks like. We can take that residual value off the front of your purchase. We can look at redeployment. We can do a lot of different things for customers in this unique kind of ⁓ ever changing price increases across the board. And I think it adds value for customers to know that they're not only getting a device, but a device that's worth something at the end of three years. And I think it's really timely for the MacBook Neo to be coming in when all these price increases are happening. It's, again, we're seeing a ton of demand, a ton of requests to understand, you what can the MacBook Neo do? I have customers looking to test it in their environment. And even though the device only has eight gigs of of unified memory and 256 gigs SSD, a lot of the time this is all you need to get your work done depending on what your role is in your organization. And I think also it's now is the best time than ever to start considering offering Mac as choice if you haven't done it before, where offering Mac does a whole lot more for your organization. It improves workplace satisfaction, productivity goes up. And then we think about retaining the best talent in the market. know, like we were talking about earlier, the younger generation coming into the workplace are going to be expecting a MacBook to work on. So if you're not offering that today, you put yourself at a disadvantage as an employer ⁓ in the market. I really don't think it's, again, it's not Mac versus PC. not, you know, not getting the boxing gloves out and looking to come after all the PC, you know. buyers, but I think what we are looking to do is say, well, hold on a second, why not a Mac? Right? If price isn't the consideration anymore, you know, a of modern workplaces are offering Mac OS choice. Insight offers Mac OS choice. can tell you, I wouldn't, you know, when I started, I was offered a Mac but pro and I was thrilled. Right? So it's important. And I think it's an opportunity for us to have more conversations with customers.
speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, you say Mac is choice. So ⁓ explain to me a little bit about these choice programs, especially for like the MacBook Neo and the MacBook Air in Quebec education. I don't really have too much background there, so would love to learn more.
speaker-1: For sure, for sure. think ⁓ education customers are really excited right now. Like this Neo's come out and we're seeing a lot of thought leadership go into what does this look like over the next two or three years for our organization where our budgets haven't necessarily ⁓ been there for a more expensive Mac device. But I think it's bigger than that. I think there's been a big shift that Mac isn't a niche or special request device anymore. And I think MacBook Neo and MacBook Air create a practical kind of two tier strategy where you're addressing a cost sensitive deployment, but you're also giving high performance needs to those who need it. So MacBook Neo enables organizations to ⁓ broadly adopt that device where MacBook Air is a little more powerful, can support educators, staff. advanced users with performance and a great thin and light form factor for putting in your backpack every single day. So I think these are the things that are the conversations that are happening in the background. And I think more than that is Apple as a platform brings a lot of tangible value for both teachers and students. If you think about supporting workflows and reducing friction and keeping instruction moving, if we think about ⁓ some of the feature sets within Mac, like AirDrop, not having to rely on a bulky USB drive or whatever it might be or an email to get something from one device to another. ⁓ Or continuity, like I've been talking about today is the overall ecosystem is really important for productivity. And I think for teachers, they really value this. And then students, again, students are doing a ton of stuff every day. They're writing, they're coding, they're doing multimedia projects, they're doing collaborative work. I mean, all these things fall well in line with Mac. ⁓ And not only that, the accessibility tools that are available, like voiceover, dictation, ⁓ live captions, it helps address diverse learning needs without additional software. And it really does offer the equity and inclusion at scale. So I really think that's what educators in our education clients seem to think about when we're looking at a device like the MacBook Neo or MacBook Pro. But overall, really exciting. We have a new public sector lead actually who was brought on a few months ago. ⁓ So he's all bought in on Mac and we're excited to see where we can take it.
speaker-0: That's awesome. I love that you like think about all the use cases and how and where the product is going to be like the laptop is going to be used and in what ways. And so when somebody comes to you and they say like, I want 100 MacBooks, like something you said earlier is I want a thousand.
speaker-1: Box.
speaker-0: Yeah, what what are you like, like you said, anyone can sell a box. So yeah, what are they really asking for when they come with that kind of request?
speaker-1: You know, I think it's easy to say, okay, great, Mr. customer, many and what color, right? And I'll take a P.O. tomorrow. ⁓ I think when a customer asks for hundred MacBooks, they're not really asking for hardware. They're asking for a hundred productive users on day one, right? And that means devices are configured or secured. They're enrolled in Apple School Manager. They're integrated with their... device management tools and they're ready to go. Right. So I think that's, that's a big piece of, of being a trusted advisor is really understanding of what are you trying to accomplish when you buy a hundred Mac books and what, things need to happen for this to be successful. And then what happens after deployment, like how are repairs handled? What's your downtime strategy? Who owns life cycle support? ⁓ I think that's where we differentiate. in Canada, we're very unique in that we're an Apple authorized service provider. ⁓ And what this means is customers don't need to go down to the mall and send an employee to wait at the Genius Bar and wait however long it might take to get that device fixed. listen, I'm nothing against retail. I worked there for many years. It's a great environment, but it's not great for business customers, right? And I think... This is part of the overall story is, you know, if customer is buying a hundred MacBooks and let's say one or two go down within that first year, you want to know you have a partner that can support you and get you a device same day or next day without having to, you know, find a parking spot at Christmas time, right? Trying to, you know, battle with people just because your device went down. So I think that's really important. And we have a lot of success stories to share around this, right? And actually, just hot off the press, just released a success story with WestJet. So if you haven't seen this yet, go check it out. I'll be posting on my LinkedIn. It'll be on our insight.ca page, but everything kind of I'm talking about is outlined pretty nicely in that video and we're definitely.
speaker-0: So how does Plugable and Insight work together really as those trusted advisors to help customers find the right environment fit?
speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, I think, like, just simply put, like, we can be superheroes for our customers, right? We can really do it all between our partnership with Insight and Plugable. I think jumping on a call with a customer, really understanding what use cases exist out there today, what pain points can Plugable and Insight solve together for, you what future plans maybe do organizations have, ⁓ what's driving change, is there an AI story? ⁓ that customers are trying to learn from. So I think between Plugable's AI story, Insight's AI story, there's a lot there. ⁓ And again, leading with purpose. So really just understanding what user personas exist out there today. Insight can do a great job of understanding what security requirements you might need, what business outcomes you're trying to solve for. And I think Plugable ensures that the day-to-day experience actually works. You built... really reliable and purpose-built peripherals. And there's a reason why someone chooses a pluggable device over another. So I think together we're getting customers the right stuff, if you will, and from a credible and trusted partner.
speaker-0: Yeah. So we started talking about at the start of this, all things modern work and what does modern work mean and how so much is changing Apple releasing new devices that now kind of unlock new, new customers and partners that we could be working with. so here at Plugable, obviously we've, we've leaned into so many things being AI first. I know insight is the same exact way. So ⁓ how is insight using Horizon to change seller customer interactions?
speaker-1: Yeah, I mean, I'll tell you, AI is really exciting, right? It's really exciting to be part of this. It's really exciting to work for an AI first company like Insight. I think my workflow and the way I work every day has changed completely. And I'm almost becoming bionic. I'm almost part of my Mac now. My arm is almost plugged into my docking station, my pluggable docking station, because I'm using it every... you know, every second I can. And I know there was a saying, you know, people were really worried about AI replacing people and replacing roles and jobs. Whereas that's not the case. It's really around. If you're not learning every day around AI and how to leverage these tools, someone else will. Right. So my dad would say it's moving day and you got to pack up your boxes and you can't be, you know, you can't be still. I think that's exactly what's happening. I think at Insight, we've decided to start to be client zero first on AI before even advising customers on the entire platform. So Horizon is our internal AI platform. It's the foundation of that strategy. ⁓ But it's fundamentally changed how, not just me, but our sellers prepare for engagements with customers. Like you can think about how quickly sellers now can uh, get relevant case studies, draft proposals, uh, tailor messaging based on what they're trying to accomplish. Um, and I think the biggest thing is that, you know, what used to take days is taking minutes. Um, and so it's, it's pretty crazy how fast we're ramping up with this. And I think for insight, because we use AI daily ourselves, our team shows up with a ton of credibility. Um, they can speak from, they can speak to, uh, you know, experience and adoption. They can speak to the governance around it, some of the pitfalls maybe that we've seen, and not just quote unquote theory. And it just improved efficiency, it's strengthened trust in our everyday customer conversation. And I can tell you for me, it's been a major game changer. So I'm excited to see where things go. is obviously for early days, but this will be something that comes up more and more as we work with our customers.
speaker-0: Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. The shift that's happening in the world. And we take the same approach here at Pugable where we're doubling down. I don't even quadrupling down on AI internally. And that that's helping us better understand our customer needs as well. If they have these quad monitor setups that are running AI agents and yeah. So it's super exciting to be a part of all of it. And I think making us better partners by. by being AI first.
speaker-1: not going to be more it's ⁓ it's a very exciting time it's it's scary but it's exciting right and it's important to embrace it rate so
speaker-0: Yeah. So I have one more question for you as an Apple guy. I'm so curious, like what's on your desk? Like what, like, I know you probably have all or have tested and tried all the Apple stuff. Like what actually stays on your desk?
speaker-1: So I like to keep my desk really simple. I have a MacBook Pro connected to a monitor. I have a pluggable dock. And of course I have an iPhone Air, which I just got. I'll show you how thin this device is, if I can get the case off. I don't know if you can see how thin this device is, but it's, I mean, that is just incredible, right? So have an iPhone Air, MacBook Pro.
speaker-0: person yet.
speaker-1: I have a Vision Pro actually in my closet. I got demo gear for customers. So ⁓ yeah, I keep it simple though. I don't like clutter. know, MacBook display, ⁓ keyboard, mouse, you know, good to go.
speaker-0: ⁓ Are you a Magic Mouse user or are you anti?
speaker-1: So ⁓ I would love to be a Magic Mouse user. had one of our partners at my company offer me a space gray Logitech mouse. yeah, that's it.
speaker-0: I mean, a little bit more ergonomic probably than the Apple Mac.
speaker-1: Yeah, no, ⁓ listen, it's great. My setup's good. I love it.
speaker-0: I love that you might have sold me on the air. I'd be nervous about dropping it though, so light and thin.
speaker-1: Well, I got AppleCare on it, even by dropping it, it's fine. Let's get it replaced.
speaker-0: Yeah, yeah, that's awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time. I really appreciate it. I learned a lot. Yeah, it's really nice to kind of get out of Plugable for a little bit and kind of understand your Apple world. I wish I got to live in the Apple world all the time. I'm a big Apple fan, so. Yeah.
speaker-1: Yeah, no, it's been great. Thank you for having me on and thinking of me. It's very flattering and ⁓ yeah, I'm sure you'll be in touch and we'll talk more.
speaker-0: Thanks for watching.
