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HP’s Personal Systems President Alex Cho Talks CES 2021 – The Six Five Insiders Edition

On this episode of The Six Five – Insiders Edition Patrick Moorhead and I are joined by Alex Cho, President of Personal Systems at HP. Alex is leading the team that designs the solutions that keep us productive, learning, and connected with colleagues, friends and family. It’s a huge unit that is delivering the critical technology that we need — especially since we’ve moved to a more remote way of living and working in the last year.

Our conversation covered CES 2021 and what we can expect from HP this week. CES is always an exciting time for tech companies and this year — even though it’s remote — is no different.

HP and CES 2021

Our conversation with Alex also revolved around the following:

  • How COVID has changed the way we view the PC
  • An overview of the announcements HP is making at CES this week including the theme of their announcements
  • How HP is improving the devices in their product line
  • Where 2021 might take us and the devices we will need to support it

While CES is remote this year, we are still looking forward to the announcements that companies like HP are making this week. The upgrades to their device line and the new technology that will hit the market this year will continue to improve the way we live and work — and I couldn’t be more excited. If you are interested in hearing what HP has planned for CES and 2021 be sure to add this podcast to your ‘must listen’ list this week.

Watch our interview with Alex here:

Listen on your favorite streaming platform here:

Disclaimer: The Six Five Insiders Podcast is for information and entertainment purposes only. Over the course of this podcast, we may talk about companies that are publicly traded and we may even reference that fact and their equity share price, but please do not take anything that we say as a recommendation about what you should do with your investment dollars. We are not investment advisors and we do not ask that you treat us as such.

Read more analysis from Futurum Research:

Intel Announces A Flurry Of CPU And AV Updates At CES 2021

HP Delivers Record Breaking Quarter To Close Out Year

HP Announces New Efforts Aimed At Helping Students, Educators, Businesses And Families

Transcript:

Daniel Newman: Welcome to the Six Five Podcast. I am your host, Daniel Newman, Principal Analyst, and Founding Partner at Futurum Research, joined by my always esteemed co-host entering the new 2021 year with a bang, Patrick Moorhead of Moor Insights & Strategy. Patrick, welcome to the Six Five show today. And by the way, Six Five Insiders show today that I know we’re both really excited about.

Patrick Moorhead: Daniel, great to see you. I think about a year ago. And I forget if I was either heavily prepping for on on-prem CES 2020, or if I was already there, I guess it’s only been a year, but we are definitely doing a virtual CES 2021 this year, aren’t we?

Daniel Newman: Yeah, we’re doing a lot of virtual this year. It is 2021. A year ago, we had no idea quite what ’21 would look like. And we talked about that in our end of year show in our wrap up. I think even midway through 2020, we thought, “Hey, by 2021, we’re going to probably be back out on the road.” Then is late 2020 kind of happened. We’re like, “Holy cow!” 2021, at least the first half is going to look an awful lot like 2020. And here we are, the world’s largest consumer electronics show is going to be done remotely. And by the way, just about every major event I think, in the first at least six months of ’21 will also be done remote.

Patrick Moorhead: That’s right. So without further ado, let’s jump into this special Insider Edition here. And we are very happy to have Alex Cho, President of Personal Systems at HP. Alex, how are you doing?

Alex Cho: I’m doing great. I had a couple of weeks where the company was slowed down for the holidays and we’re ready for 2021. Great to see you guys again after a year.

Patrick Moorhead: Yeah, I know. Absolutely. You were one of our first guests on our Insider show. And then, we’ve done close to 100 since. It’s been crazy, but the appetite for people to get good content online has just gone up astronomically for us. Neither Daniel, or I consider ourselves YouTubers. We are industry analysts, but hey, why keep all this great content locked up behind a paywall? We want to make sure opinions on this great tech are here. And anyways, great to have you on the show. And there’s a big show coming up, CES. And whether it’s in-person or virtual does not stop the tech show for HP. So, but before we dive into that, I know being president of the Personal Systems Group, people can derive what you do at the company, but can you talk about in the big picture of HP, what you do?

Alex Cho: Sure. I’d love to talk about what I do, thank you. The way I think about it, is I am responsible for helping to design solutions that help people stay productive and keep learning and be secure and be cared for. I mean, especially during this time, I’d say that the opportunity for us, from what we call personal systems, and personal systems spans PC devices, yes, but the rich ecosystem of peripherals and displays and services, all of that, that we innovate around in order to help people again, stay working, stay learning, stay connected, continue to be entertained, even if they have to be sheltered in place and not traveling.

Daniel Newman: Yeah, absolutely. And Alex, you’ve been a multi-timer here. You joined us. We did our first podcast blitz in I believe it was April timeframe, when the shutdown kind of first really became a big reality in our lives and tech was really coping and you came on and you talked to us about what HP was doing, and then you joined us again and gave a great keynote on something called the PC is essential, and we’ll talk about that throughout the show today at our Six Five summit, which we’re thrilled to be actually doing our second edition this year.

But here we are, new year 2021. And it is a reality for big companies like HP that are traditionally extraordinary at showcasing their wares at big live events. Big exhibition halls, fancy devices, very soft carpet in your booth, very hard floors, everywhere else, mileage and mileage and mileage. But I want to talk about this, because I want to get to your products and I’m excited to break all that. But look, this has got to be so different, 100% remote.

I just got to know. I mean, I know you’re probably not the event person, but you’re involved in so much of the planning. What does that look like? What does planning and prepping for an event of this size and magnitude when it’s gone 100% virtual look like?

Alex Cho: Well, you’re right. I mean, first this, it’s all different. And different doesn’t necessarily mean bad, but it is different. And in fact, what we’re finding is there’s a lot of things that you can do uniquely in virtual that you actually couldn’t do physically. So, it’s all of that combined. For us, if anything to think about the space that we’re in, we’re in computing. And last year, when we started to say, “The PC is essential, PC is essential,” we had not even anticipated that it’s so much more than even what we had thought. And that is, it’s the primary way that people are connecting. And people need to connect. It is a fundamental need people have, but it’s also the way by which these things like events are happening. It’s the way by which people are learning and staying educated and going to school. And so for me, what this all means is yes, it’s different. There are things that we have to learn, but it’s are opening up new ways.

As an example, you can get a lot more content. You can cover a lot more territory. I am talking to more customers than I ever did. It is so much more efficient. So the ability to get a lot of content and exposure and conversations and to cover that territory efficiently, wow, I love that. I love that, the efficiency of doing that in this kind of medium.

Patrick Moorhead: Yeah. I’m glad you brought in the, there are, we hear all the cons, which I totally get of that. But it’s actually refreshing to hear some of the pros and I have too. I mean, I have talked to more customers from either IT or vendors that than I ever did. I have a BookMe calendar. And that BookMe calendar is booked from morning to night. And in some ways it’s awesome. In some ways it’s a little bit of a curse, because I feel like I’m at a big company where I need to plan thinking time, because we are in a luxurious position as industry analysts that we get to be able to think. But before I digress, we’re going to jump into the products, but I would love for you to set the stage for overall what you look at, the overall themes for CES ’20, 2021, kind of how you approached the way that you packaged everything up. Things that are important as you get into this.

Alex Cho: Yeah. So let me just build on this topic around the PC being essential. I mean, you heard that a lot from us last year and we realized, wow, this category that we’re in is not only useful, but it’s essential for all the areas that we’ve talked about. For work, for learning, for healthcare. And as, we enter it into 2021, we realized the PC is certainly important. But what we need to focus on are the people, because it’s people who are essential. Our biggest learning is yes, PCs are essential, because people are essential and it’s so important to enable them.

And so, for us heading into 2021, we’ve spent a lot more time focusing in on the key people that we want innovate for. So we’re looking at the worker who is working in a hybrid environment. We are paying attention to the SNB who’s dealing with a unique set of challenges. Guess what? We’re also paying attention to the IT manager of today. Different set of challenges and needs than the IT manager of pre-COVID.

What do they need? And then as well, all of these creatives, especially youth and their desire to want to express themselves. So we’re really focusing on the people behind where all this innovation needs to serve. And maybe the second thing is, it’s all about experiences. It’s funny, I was thinking about CES. Maybe we should rebrand it, the Consumer Experience Show, because it’s a great indication of what we think is more important than just a product. And that’s the experience we’re delivering for these people, particularly in the new normal. And that kind of gives you the backdrop of a lot of innovation that we are really excited about.

Daniel Newman: And there’s no question that you’re clearly setting the stage. You were so right. And by the way, the demise of the PC was largely greatly exponentially overstated. And so, if we ever saw a time, and by the way, kind of as a sidebar, I actually think if you polled the world while people like myself and sometimes Pat, who probably you, who did travel a lot, maybe complained a little, “We miss it, we miss it. We miss humans.” I think a lot of people are really kind of enjoying this. I think a lot of people with the exception of the background of the pandemic are actually sort of enjoying being at home more. I’ll tell you one thing Alex, just on a personal note, I got more FaceTime with my family, with my daughter going off to college, my young kids, 19, 15 and four now.

And I got a whole year with my son, a whole year with my wife. I hadn’t had a year with my family in forever. So it was kind of awesome. And at the same time, as Pat said on my PC, because of Zoom and WebEx and Teams, I had more meetings and saw more customers than I’d ever seen in a single year. So there was a lot of good to it. But it’s easy to digress this stuff. I just sense your passion, Alex. And I love that you’re really finding a way to make the best of this. But I want to talk about the announcement. So, the company has a bunch of announcements. You’re entering some new categories. Let’s hit some highlights of the announcements of CES so we can dive a little bit more into that.

Alex Cho: Sure. So just to add to your earlier statement, what is very interesting, I’m finding it true is that digital is far more important. I mean, everyone knows that, but in this environment, we’re recognizing that digital is more important and physical is also so precious as well. And so both are important in bridging both more digital while recognizing how great physical is in enabling that transition is really I think the magic of where innovation opportunities lie. When you think about the announcements or when we talk about announcements that we’re doing at CES, it is around looking and studying the needs of these personas that I mentioned, whether you’re a hybrid worker or you’re an SNB, or you’re an IT manager, or you are a youth who wants to create, in fact, everyone wants to create, we talk about the use cases, creating, consuming, collaborating. Those are the three C’s of last year. And we said, “Hey, we’re seeing in our telemetry. People are doing more creating, consuming, collaborating.” That was pre-COVID.

COVID happens, creating go through the roof, consuming content whether it’s video content or gaming through the roof, collaborating look at what we’re doing digitally, virtually through the roof. And so, we are really innovating around experiences in those three areas and you see that proliferated across our portfolio.

Patrick Moorhead: Can you talk a little bit more, by the way, I love the consistency and I give credit where credit is due. It’s not just analysts who are smart out there. You said the PC was essential before it was cool to talk about that. I remember you and I talked about some research that you had done and you’re like, “Hey, Pat, we’re seeing some key trends in our primary research that we think are quite a positive, whether it’s gen-Z or whether it’s folks utilizing their PCs pre-pandemic for things like video. And the generation who grew up with smartphones saying, “Hey, they’re actually using PCs more.” So credit to you and credit to HP, credit to your research folks for pulling it out. And it was so funny how afraid the rest of the industry was to go out there and I appreciate you just laying it out and sharing your research. But let’s dive in if we can to the product line. In the context of the PC is essential, can you talk about the way you’re improving Dragonfly, Envy, bringing out Elite Folio in the context of creating, consuming and collaborating?

Alex Cho: Sure. So one of the key theaters, design theaters that’s important for most people is the home, whether it’s for work or for learning, et cetera. And so, we took our cues from studying how people are working in their home. And there’s several insights that we’re finding. Number one is, they’re not just in one place, they are moving around in the home. And so, the ability to have a device that allows them to move around the home is very important. That will be the case as well when you travel or in the office. And so, what you’ve seen is that we are announcing our flagship 800 series notebook and delivering that in a new light form factor that breaks all of the records that we’ve had and is really out there around lightweight so that you can move around and use and be productive while you do so. Second thing that we’re announcing is-

Patrick Moorhead: Yeah, Alex. Which one of the products on here is this? Can you not point to it, but describe it. Where it is in this lineup?

Alex Cho: Yeah. Look at the far right. The 840 EliteBook Aero. Far, right. Yep, there you go. I see your little pointer there. That’s the world’s lightest 14-inch mainstream notebook. Again, we don’t care about speeds and feeds in and of itself. We care about the experience and the experience is we allow people to move, it’s so light. The other thing that’s very important around this device is that it is enabled with a lot of intelligence, AI that we’ve built into the device based on how you work. What do you care about? You care a lot more about instant on. And so we’ve enabled this to enable faster on off, because you’re quickly transitioning from room to room, opening it up, closing it down, et cetera, which is very important. The other thing that continues to be important is recognizing you’re in a place where there’s other sounds around you.

So, AI-based noise reductions. So ambient sounds are excluded and people can focus on your voice when you’re talking. Again, just looking at how people are working and how they are doing that throughout their day. The other element of this device that’s very important is security has never been more important as you all know. The vulnerabilities of people who are not in a corporate network are only being magnified.

And so, the best of our security suite is incorporated in this. And we take it even further. We make sure that if you, by chance misplace the device, it’s find-able through a unique integration that we have with it so that you can find the device. So we really looking at the lifecycle of how a worker works in today’s environment. And you see that manifested in our mainstream product, which is our 840 EliteBook.

Patrick Moorhead: Nice. Can you talk a little bit about the Elite Folio?

Alex Cho: Yeah. Happy to. And then you move over to the left there. There you go. And you see that, that is our Elite Folio. And what was important to us as we’re watching SNBs in particular, was they need the diversity of a device than meets the diversity of what they do. And what are they doing? I mean, that is a pull for device. We introduced it first in our consumer product, and now we’re introducing it in our commercial form factor or in our commercial line. It’s the Elite Folio. It has multiple modes that recognizes that you compute for many different ways. Yes, it has a keyboard mode for the productivity of having a keyboard that you can have also while you’re on your lap.

Secondly, it goes very quickly into tablet mode, because often you are jotting things down and we have a garage pen that automatically when you take it out, would trigger your whiteboard capabilities so that you can maximize or be very quick in jotting things down on your device.
You also have guess what? Media consumption mode. So people can dial in and watch things like your Six Five content, because what is a SNB doing a lot? They are consuming content on how you do this and how you do that. So maximizing for video consumption, that’s happening. And all of this is done while recognizing that this device needs to fit into a broader ecosystem of experiences, meaning what you do with your phone. So enabling you to move pictures and files from your phone quickly onto the device. So we’ve really looked at again, the day in the life of an SNB, particularly during this time, the diversity of needs and making sure it’s not that the SNB needs to adapt to their device. This device adapts to what the SNB is doing. Again, it’s not focusing on the product, it’s focusing on the person. That’s why I’m really thinking this is about people being essential more than PCs being essential.

Patrick Moorhead: Right? And I think one of the product lines that by the way, I am so glad you updated Folio. It was one of my favorite products. I was at your product launch in New York back when we used to do live events, I loved the leather integration of it. And I’m really looking forward to trying this out. It’s fully connected. It’s always connected, which is nice. And what I’ve found cool about this one, is it literally, you could mistake it for a Folio, that has a legal pad inside. But let’s shift to Dragonfly. I think you really turned a lot of heads when you brought Dragonfly out. First of all, it wasn’t gray, it wasn’t black. It wasn’t silver. It was okay, Stacy’s going to scream, it’s blue. I know it’s not blue. It’s some special-

Alex Cho: Dragonfly blue.

Patrick Moorhead: Dragonfly blue. Super-light, super-thin convertible. And I know, I’ve graciously, you’ve sampled me with a few of these and people fight to take that one. You’re updating Dragonfly as well.

Alex Cho: Correct, correct. In fact, we have two iterations of it that we are announcing at CES. First is to make really the beloved Dragonfly you’re right. And bringing it to even more modern capability and enabling with 5G in what we’re doing with the latest Dragonfly. And in addition, what we’re doing is we’re introducing Dragonfly Max. And I think that’s particularly important. Dragonfly Max is for us recognizing that what people are doing again, when I state this, everyone will say, “Of course we are.” People are spending all their time collaborating.

They’re in Teams calls, Zooms calls. And so, this device is the ultimate collaboration device. We not only added features that help in collaboration, we designed for collaboration and that’s a very different effort. So we took the same chassis that was breaking all the records around productivity and thinness, but also a great keyboard, which is still very important.

And then what did we do? We improved what I’ve been calling the eyes, ears and the mouth of the product, because that’s how you connect, right? So what do I mean by that? Start with a webcam. We put in a five megapixel and a significantly improved camera system, so that people show up better. A very important part of this whole experience of being online. And so, I’ve actually realized that all of the webcams we used to put before, they were just primarily around keeping them small and thin and light. They weren’t optimized for zooming. You’re looking at people all day long and you want to show up well. So that’s first thing. The second thing that we did is recognize not only do you want to be seen well, but you want to be heard well. And so, we’ve increased the clarity of the mic performance by adding in more mics, also ensuring there’s AI-enabled noise reduction.

So you hear what you want to hear, you get people to pay attention to what you want them to hear and not what you don’t want to hear. Another key part. The other thing is, guess what? If you’re on conference calls all day, you’re staring at a screen all day, right? And so, we took this wonderful form factor and then we added in IEs, which is basically a way to keep as you know, and reduce the pressure and the wear on your eyes while you’re on video conferencing. That all to be in case we kept all the security elements, including that we built into the device and we’ve introduced even a new color. So I know everyone loves Dragonfly blue, but as well, we’ve made it available now in sparkling black, because of all the demands for it having some more diversity of that. So we’ve done a lot with this product. I’m personally very excited about it.

And by the way, we’re also announcing with it, the recognition that not only people are conferencing in areas where they can be heard, et cetera, and they’re okay with other people hearing, but we’re also announcing with it earbuds, because privacy and the ability to communicate while having your own earbuds is an important part of that solution. So it’s a total solution. It’s an experience. Again, it’s designing for the person and bringing a lot of innovation to that.

Daniel Newman: All right. You stole my thunder.

Alex Cho: Oh, did I?

Daniel Newman: Since you’re the guest, you can do that. That’s okay. When Pat does it though, we have little spars on our show, like, “Hey, you didn’t leave me anything to talk.” No. I want to talk about the earbuds in a second here. I do want to say though, you happen to be on with two analysts that love to do video and would love to try the Dragonfly Max. So when that thing’s got a few and you got a few extras lying around there Alex, you know where to send them, right? All right, just kidding. So listen, I looked through everything that you are launching and very impressive and thanks by the way for sharing. And I love how you tied it all back to this whole three C’s. But I will say that wireless earbuds grabbed my attention. Not because I’m not confident that HP won’t make a beautiful and great sounding product, but just because it has been sort of a highly scaled field were entrance all over the map, very closely knitted to, I would say the mobile device, the phone.

And so I’m really interested in sort of what spurned the decision to get into the space. You sort of already alluded to it and then sort of how does HP intend to really stack up and make a go in this particular area?

Alex Cho: Yeah. Again, I want to anchor it on what are we paying attention to? And is what people are doing. And they are collaborating? And we say collaborating. But if I say on Microsoft Teams, Zoom and people immediately understand, and they’re doing that all day long. And in that use case, as we have spent a lot of time now studying what are pain points and what are opportunities? Everything on audio continues to show up. Not that it’s just important, but that there are pain points in it. And so, what we decided to do is as a part of this announcement, was just really designing for the total experience, that we would do some work on designing earbuds that met the needs of what our customers are really looking for. And so, what are they looking for? Seems very basic, but related to computing first, they need to pair easily.

They need to pair easily on your device and also device meaning your PC, your Windows PC, but they also want to use the earbuds, not only for their PC, but might be for their iOS device or their Android device. And I think others in the phone space have done a nice job setting the precedent for people learning that parents should be quick and easy and straightforward. That’s number one. We made that basic challenge significantly better by enabling that on this device, not only on our device from a PC perspective, but then so that they can do across multiple devices, including the phone devices. Second thing is, we’ve really focused on the ability to hear and tune for conversation. Now, a lot of tuning has done for music, which is important. And so, we’ve made sure that we keep all the learnings around making music vibrant, but it’s well, we really focused on being able to hear speech, what are we doing? I’m not singing to you. You don’t want me to sing to you. I am talking to you. And we’re talking to many different types of people with different voices.

And so, what we’ve built into this is very advanced technology. In fact, it’s the same technology that’s used in high-end hearing aids, so that it personalizes it’s tuning so that based on your ambient environment, what you’re able to hear, it maximizes your ability to hear speech. And we think that’s very important, because we don’t want people to be distanced and also miss what was said, whether it was subtle or out loud.

And so that’s a very important part of what we’re trying to build into this. And then maybe a finally, I would just say is, it’s really important that this is a device that lasts throughout the day. It also has great noise reduction, noise cancellation, which is still something that’s very important.

And again, fits into what people are doing, whether they are doing it for work. Yes, also for personal relaxation and entertainment and customizing it to each person. By the way, turns out that people don’t all hear the same. I don’t know if you know that, but people don’t know how to hear the same. So personalizing this for how you hear is really the focus. And again, what’s our theme. People are essential, people have unique needs. It’s not people adapting to the technology, it’s technology adapting to them. I could not be more excited about that direction. And that’s an ambition beyond CES 2021. We’re going to keep doing this, because we’re very excited about it. And we’re passionate about the opportunity.

Patrick Moorhead: Yeah. So Alex, we talked years ago. I don’t know if you remember about the unmet need of really having a business-focused headphone. And while I’m sure you can play music on these, pretty much everybody’s going for the same space. And I was wondering, where is the space for business where it’s focused on talking? It’s also tested very well. Phones are important, but the PC is important as well. And thank you for adding a USBC charger. I’ve recently bought, I mean there’s $249 pairs of headphones that have a micro USB charger on it. And I’m just like, “That’s just so year 2000-type.” But I know it’s a little thing, but I think I’m a big believer in the little things add up to people demonstrating and having the confidence that you actually care about what you’re doing. But yeah, will bring you back by the way for your singing. That will be a special Insider edition.

But Alex, you have been very instrumental and vocal thought leadership about the new normal, how we’re going to be working. You talk a little bit about this at the outset, but we’d like to close out this session, talking a little bit about what do you see for the remainder of 2021? Are we going to get back to normal, full virtual, remote work situation continue? Where do you sit on that?

Alex Cho: Yeah. First is, I won’t be one who gives you a timeline. And there’s a lot of discussion on timeline. What I will say is, I’m a firm believer based on a lot of discussions. Again, we can do more now within this technology that there will be a time when we are not restricted as much as we are now from traveling. But that does not mean that we will not take advantage of technology and all the innovations that we’re doing now so that you don’t have to travel. And I think that’s a very important part in recognizing what the new normal is. Again, in my mind, in the future, it will be a hybrid workplace where yes, you might, you can travel, but you don’t have to travel. And that enabled through technology is what I think is going to be exciting. So what does that mean?

It means that I don’t think people are going to be traveling as much for a one-hour meeting, because you could do it digitally. But by the way, you could still travel and you don’t necessarily have everyone needing to go there, because some people can dial in and you won’t feel left out if you’re the one person who wasn’t dialed in or there in person, because we have technology that is very inclusive. Our ambition is that distance shouldn’t be a barrier. Today, obviously is in many different ways. But we think that we can reduce the tax on distance by all this technology. I think people will be yes, traveling more because they can, but they’re going to choose to not all the time. In fact, if you want breadth, you’re going to be scheduling a lot of virtual calls so that you can connect with a broad group of people.

And by the way, schooling. Yes, kids will be back in the classroom. However, what a great thing that we have, I guess, unintentionally happen, that is the ability to tap into the resources of people out there who may not have been formally available, but now can be available to teach, mentor, instruct, share, and we’re creating the backbone by which all of this knowledge and sharing and wisdom and experience can be tapped into. That’s not going to slow down. This is not cyclical to use our language. The opportunity here around enabling hybrid, remote productivity of learning and contribution, that is a great secular trend that again, we could not be more excited about.

Daniel Newman: You said the word I was about to say Alex, hybrid. I think in the end, everything is going to be about balance. We’ve seen it happen with the way IT manages. We’re seeing it with the way we meet. We’re seeing it with the way we learn. There’s social and physical and reasons why humans will want to continue to connect in physical spaces. But there are also going to be a whole lot of things that we learned, maybe on purpose, maybe on accident throughout this process of going through. Clearly, you’re passionate about it, which is the funnest part about having you on the show. And secondly, that passion is finding its way into the products that are being developed and brought to market, including those that you mentioned today at CES. Now we could talk for hours with you, but what I have to say is, because this is a show and we got the producer in our ear right now. So we got to let you go.

But because of that, I do want to say, you’re always welcome back here. I’m sure we’ll be inviting you back. We wish you Alex, a tremendously successful virtual CES 2021. I can promise you Patrick and I will be watching. We will be sharing and tweeting out our thoughts to the ethers. And we really do genuinely appreciate you and HP being part of the Six Five podcasts, Alex. So we got to say goodbye, but thanks so much for joining us today.

Alex Cho: You’re welcome.

Patrick Moorhead: Thanks Alex. I love having Alex on. This is fun. And, I had a real job Daniel, before I became an industry analyst. And passion is not everything, but it’s a lot. And particularly when you’re trying to do things differently and drive change. And that’s why I love having Alex on and like to see what they’re doing. They’re taking risks, I like that. I mean, they do risky stuff, which in the PC industry, you just don’t see a lot of, because you make a mistake, the margins are low and you get punished. So I appreciate that.

Daniel Newman: Well, it’s diversifying, it’s meeting customers where they are. It’s looking at new ways to provide additional value. It’s higher attachment rates, but yeah, I wish you’d stop saying that this isn’t a real job.

Patrick Moorhead: I’m just kidding. You had a real job too.

Daniel Newman: She doesn’t read my books.

Patrick Moorhead: You’re the CEO of a company.

Daniel Newman: I just know Pat that someday she’s going to listen to one podcast, is going to be the one where you inform her that we don’t really work.

Patrick Moorhead: That’s right.

Daniel Newman: But in all serious, when you love what you do and the passion’s there, I know it’s cliche, but it really does make life really good to do this. So hey, what a show though man. Let’s take this home for everybody out there. You know, go ahead and check out the show notes. We’re going to go ahead and attach some of the details to some of the launches that Alex Cho mentioned. We’ll also try to put links into some of the past episodes, because you got to listen to Alex. We keep bringing him back because he really does do a good job of weaving a story together. So go ahead and click the show notes, click that subscribe button, stick with us. I hope you like what we’re doing here. You’re seeing, we’re getting more graphics, we’re getting more engaged here. We will be like the next big TV show. Actually we already are, but hey, for this episode of the Six Five podcasts, Insider edition. Thanks HP. Thanks Alex Cho. Thank you Patrick Moorhead. Got to say goodbye. See you later. Adios.

Author Information

Daniel is the CEO of The Futurum Group. Living his life at the intersection of people and technology, Daniel works with the world’s largest technology brands exploring Digital Transformation and how it is influencing the enterprise.

From the leading edge of AI to global technology policy, Daniel makes the connections between business, people and tech that are required for companies to benefit most from their technology investments. Daniel is a top 5 globally ranked industry analyst and his ideas are regularly cited or shared in television appearances by CNBC, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal and hundreds of other sites around the world.

A 7x Best-Selling Author including his most recent book “Human/Machine.” Daniel is also a Forbes and MarketWatch (Dow Jones) contributor.

An MBA and Former Graduate Adjunct Faculty, Daniel is an Austin Texas transplant after 40 years in Chicago. His speaking takes him around the world each year as he shares his vision of the role technology will play in our future.

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