Wednesday, July 12, 2006

A chat with Michael Dell: Alienware and XPS to stay separate

TG Daily: "While custom PC builder Alienware may benefit from the much-increased purchasing power of its new corporate parent, Dell Computer, the development tracks of the two companies will remain separate. The reason, as Dell Computer Chairman Michael Dell revealed to TG Daily during a roundtable session with journalists on Sunday afternoon, is because his company's top-of-the-line XPS performance systems and Alienware's product line are targeted toward separate customer bases - still segments of the same gaming and enthusiast market, but still measurably different.
'I think what we've seen is that [the gaming and enthusiast segment] is a pretty big market,' Mr. Dell told reporters, 'and XPS has done quite well, [and] the Alienware brand has done quite well. We think their appeals are slightly different. The development teams are continuing on with the strategies that they've had, which are really very different. Each one has its own customer base.'
According to Dell's own internal research, which Mr. Dell cited, the Dell and Alienware brands combined share 60% of the high-end gaming and enthusiast computer market in the US. Mr. Dell admitted there were few independent statistical measures of this market, but that he relies on internal figures."

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