Apple's MacBook Neo removes cost as an obstacle to Mac adoption for SMBs. At roughly $600, these devices appeal to businesses that previously defaulted to Windows. That means tenants who have never asked their MSPs about Mac management are about to start. Fortunately, Microsoft Intune already supports Apple device management natively. MSPs can integrate Apple Business Manager with Intune to manage everything from the platform they already know, and inforcer’s multi-tenant management platform enables them to do this at scale.
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There's a device on the market right now that's about to change what your tenants ask you to manage.
Apple's MacBook Neo costs roughly $600. For context, that price point has historically belonged to mid-range Windows laptops. The MacBook Neo is slim, has a long battery life, and offers a broad range of accessible capabilities that appeal to end users. Apple is making a deliberate play by turning this device into a loss leader to accelerate ecosystem adoption.
The consequence for MSPs is straightforward: the cost objection that kept Macs out of most SMB environments is gone. Tenants who previously defaulted to Windows because Mac hardware felt out of reach are now going to buy Macs. And when they do, they'll expect their MSP to manage them.
If your MSP doesn't offer Mac management, someone else will.
The good news is that you probably already have at least one of the tools you need. And with help from inforcer, you can manage all your tenants at once.
The price drop matters, but so does the context of Apple’s announcement.
Macs have always performed well in end-user satisfaction surveys. Apple computers are reliable and have excellent build quality. But macOS also has a loyal following, particularly among creative professionals, developers, and knowledge workers. That opens up an entirely new class of potential SMB tenants for MSPs who can manage these devices.
As for the SMB environments that have traditionally run Microsoft in the past, the friction regarding Apple was never simply about user preference. For many, that decision came down to cost justification and IT complexity.
The MacBook Neo resolves the cost question. And as we'll cover shortly, modern tooling resolves the IT complexity question too.
Apple is not being subtle about its intentions here. By pricing flagship hardware at entry-level price points, they are explicitly targeting businesses that have previously been Windows-only. They want organisations to buy Apple devices, get users into iCloud and the broader Apple ecosystem, and then find it difficult to leave. That is a classic platform adoption strategy, and it tends to work.
For MSPs, this means Mac management will shift from a niche request to a mainstream one. The question isn't whether your tenants will start asking for managed Mac services. It's whether you'll be ready when they do.
In March 2026, Apple launched Apple Business: a new all-in-one platform that consolidates Apple Business Manager, Apple Business Essentials, and Apple Business Connect into a single, free service available in more than 200 countries.
Apple Business includes:
It is clearly positioned as Apple's answer to enterprise device and identity management. It also integrates natively with Microsoft Entra ID, Google Workspace, and other identity providers.
On paper, Apple Business looks like a platform MSPs should drop everything to learn. But for those who do most of their business in Microsoft 365 already, this may not be the right move. Here's why:
If your MSP already manages Microsoft 365 environments and uses Microsoft Intune for device management, you already have a platform that handles Apple devices natively.
Intune supports iOS, iPadOS, and macOS management out of the box. You can enrol Apple devices, enforce security policies, deploy apps, and manage configurations from the same interface you use to manage Windows endpoints.
Learning Apple Business as a primary management platform means starting over: new workflows, new dashboards, new policies to configure, and no easy way to manage Apple and Windows devices side by side. That is a significant overhead for a market that is still maturing.
The smarter path is to connect Apple Business to Intune, and let Intune do what it already does well.
Related: The impact of #IntuneForMSPs: enabling secure, effective AI for SMBs
Apple Business Manager (the device and identity layer within Apple Business) can be connected to Intune to enable a workflow that combines Apple's enrollment and app distribution infrastructure with Intune's policy management and compliance capabilities.
Here's what that integration looks like in practice:
Within Intune, navigate to Tenant administration > Connectors and tokens > Apple Business Manager. You'll download a token from Apple Business Manager and upload it to Intune to establish the connection. This creates the trust relationship between the two platforms.
Once connected, Apple devices purchased through Apple or Apple Authorised Resellers can be automatically enrolled into Intune when first powered on (what Apple calls zero-touch deployment). The device comes out of the box, the user signs in, and Intune policies are applied automatically. No manual configuration required.
With devices enrolled, you can create and assign macOS compliance policies in Intune just as you would for Windows. This includes enforcing FileVault encryption, requiring a passcode, setting minimum OS versions, and defining what happens when devices fall out of compliance.
Related: How to Manage Configuration Drift Across Multiple M365 Tenants
Apple Business Manager includes volume purchasing for apps. Once connected to Intune, you can push App Store apps to managed Apple devices silently, without requiring users to sign in with a personal Apple ID. For corporate devices, this is the standard deployment method.
Apple Business now enables automated Managed Apple Account creation through integration with Microsoft Entra ID. This means employees' work Apple accounts can be provisioned and deprovisioned in sync with their Microsoft 365 identity (a significant operational improvement over manual account management).
The result is a workflow where Apple devices are enrolled, configured, and managed entirely through Intune, with Apple Business handling the underlying device identity and app licensing infrastructure. Your MSP team doesn't need to become Apple platform experts. They manage Apple devices the same way they manage everything else.
Even though you'll be managing primarily through Intune, it's worth being familiar with what Apple Business provides, since your tenants may ask about it and some features complement your Intune-based management workflow.
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Apple Business Feature |
What It Does |
Relevance to MSPs |
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Built-in MDM (Blueprints) |
Preconfigured device settings and apps; zero-touch deployment |
Complemented by Intune — use ADE for enrollment, Intune for policy management |
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Managed Apple Accounts |
Cryptographic separation of work and personal data; automated via Entra ID |
Reduces manual provisioning; integrates with your existing Microsoft 365 identity infrastructure |
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App Distribution |
Volume purchasing and App Store app deployment |
Feeds into Intune's app deployment workflows; no personal Apple ID required |
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Email, Calendar, Directory |
Professional identity services with custom domain support |
Useful for new businesses; less relevant for tenants already on Microsoft 365 |
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Admin API |
Programmatic access to device, user, and audit data |
Potential integration point for automation and reporting |
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Brand and Location Tools |
Management of brand presence across Apple Maps, Wallet, and Siri |
Outside MSP scope for most deployments; relevant for retail/hospitality clients |
Bottom line: Apple Business does a lot, but most of what MSPs need for device management is handled better through the Intune integration than through Apple Business directly. The exception is for tenants who are entirely Apple-native and have no Microsoft 365 presence, but that is rarely the case in SMB environments.
The integration between Apple Business Manager and Intune is mature and well-documented, but there are practical challenges MSPs encounter during setup and ongoing management.
The MDM Push Certificate and ABM token both expire annually. If they lapse, enrolled devices lose management. Set calendar reminders well ahead of expiry and renew tokens before they expire — not after.
Intune supports both device enrolment (full management, typically for corporate-owned devices) and user enrolment (limited management, designed for BYOD). Choosing the wrong profile for the use case creates either excessive management overhead or insufficient policy coverage. For corporate devices, use automated device enrolment via ABM. For BYOD Macs, user enrolment is the appropriate option.
Intune's macOS configuration profile options are extensive but not identical to Windows. Some settings that are simple Group Policy objects on Windows require custom configuration profiles (PLIST-based) on macOS. MSPs new to Mac management should expect a learning curve here, particularly for security hardening baselines.
macOS app deployment through Intune supports .pkg and .dmg formats as well as App Store apps via ABM. Line-of-business app packaging for macOS follows different conventions than Windows, and MSPs should factor in packaging and testing time when scoping Mac management engagements.
Each Microsoft 365 tenant requires its own ABM token and MDM Push Certificate. For MSPs managing multiple tenants, this adds administrative overhead that compounds quickly. This is where a multi-tenant management platform becomes important.
One of the first questions to resolve with any tenant deploying Apple devices is whether the hardware is company-owned or employee-owned. The answer determines the management approach.
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Corporate-Owned Devices
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BYOD (Employee-Owned) |
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Full device management via ADE and ABM
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User enrolment — manage work data only |
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Zero-touch setup out of the box |
User initiates enrolment; personal data remains private |
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Full compliance and configuration policy coverage
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Limited policy scope — conditional access over full configuration |
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Best for businesses purchasing MacBook Neos as fleet devices |
Best for employees who already own Macs and want Microsoft 365 access |
For most MSPs responding to the MacBook Neo wave, the initial requests will be a mixture of both. Tenants purchasing new MacBook Neos as company hardware represent a clean ADE deployment. Tenants with employees who already own Macs and are asking to access company resources represent a BYOD scenario. Having clear policies and service offerings for both will be essential.
Managing Apple devices through Intune doesn't reduce your security obligations. But it changes where you need to focus.
The most important security controls to establish for managed Apple devices in Microsoft 365 environments are:
One area that catches MSPs out is MFA coverage. Ensuring that Conditional Access policies extend to Apple devices and not just Windows ones requires explicit configuration. It's easy to inadvertently create policies that protect Windows endpoints while leaving macOS as an uncontrolled path to Microsoft 365 data.
The technical foundation of Apple + Intune management is solid. The operational challenge is scale.
Managing Apple devices for a single tenant involves setting up the ABM integration, configuring compliance policies, deploying apps, and tracking enrolment status. Doing this across 20, 50, or 100 tenants quickly becomes a massive workload.
Each tenant has its own ABM token, its own device policies, and its own compliance baseline to maintain. Without the right tooling, that multiplies your workload in proportion to your customer growth.
This is where inforcer becomes a force multiplier for MSPs entering the Mac management market.
The inforcer multi-tenant management platform gives MSPs a single-pane view across all their Microsoft 365 tenants, including device policy status and compliance configuration. Rather than logging into each tenant individually to check whether Apple device policies are correctly applied, MSPs can monitor and enforce policy consistency across their entire customer base from one dashboard.
The combination of Intune for device management and inforcer for multi-tenant governance is what makes Mac management commercially viable as a productised MSP service, rather than just a one-off engagement.
The MacBook Neo has created a market condition MSPs haven't faced before: a large, sudden increase in likely Mac adoption among SMB tenants who previously had no Mac devices to manage.
MSPs who respond to this with "we don't manage Macs" will lose those customers to providers who do. MSPs who respond with "we manage Macs through Intune" can retain them and expand the relationship.
The good news is that you don't need to learn Apple Business. You don't need a new platform or a new specialist team. You need to connect Apple Business Manager to Intune, establish your macOS policy baseline, and make sure your multi-tenant management tooling covers Apple device compliance alongside everything else.
Learn how inforcer makes that last part easy by helping MSPs like yours manage Intune policy across tenants at scale: