Alienware
| Alienware logo | |
| Company type | Subsidiary of Dell |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer hardware |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Headquarters | Kendall, Florida |
Key people | Nelson Gonzalez, CEO Alex Aguila, President Frank Azor, SVP of Product Development |
| Products | Desktops Workstations Laptops Peripherals |
Number of employees | ~700 worldwide |
| Parent | Dell, Inc. |
| Website | www.alienware.com |
Alienware is an American computer hardware company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dell, Inc.[1] It mainly produces desktops and laptops specialized for video editing, audio editing, and gaming. Alienware is also a producer of computer peripherals, such as headsets and keyboards. In the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a prototype was presented of what is being described as a "giant 'curved' widescreen", i.e. a display which sizewise would be equivalent to two, slightly bent 24-inch LCD screens glued together[2] Alienware was founded in 1996 by its CEO, Nelson Gonzalez, and COO, Alex Aguila. Alienware's corporate headquarters is located in Kendall, Florida, an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County west of the city of Miami.
History
Established in 1996, Alienware manufactures desktop, notebook, media center, and enterprise systems. According to employees, the Alienware name was chosen because of the founders' fondness for the hit television series The X-Files[citation needed], hence the theme to their products, with names such as Area-51 and Aurora.
Alienware was originally established to tap a niche in the high performance game market, which back then was not on the radar of the major PC manufacturers such as Dell. Since high-end game hardware was not widely distributed, the company's founders formed an OEM which sold personal computers with the highest performing hardware and settings according to benchmarks. The company products are not only famous for their hardware configurations, but also for their designs.
Operations
Alienware established its EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) headquarters in Athlone, Ireland in October 2002. As of FY 2005, Alienware brought in upwards of $170 million USD in annual sales[3], while undertaking an international expansion initiative launched in 2003 to maintain a presence in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom, and Costa Rica. Alienware has had a call center in Costa Rica to handle all sales and support calls for a number of years.[4] Additionally, Alienware allows you to send in old computer hardware in exchange for credit towards new hardware.[5]
Competitors
Alienware has traditionally competed with companies such as Falcon Northwest, Velocity Micro, and VoodooPC (which is now part of Dell's largest competitor, Hewlett-Packard). Before being acquired by Dell, Alienware also competed against Dell XPS gaming systems.
Acquisition
On March 22, 2006, Dell agreed to purchase Alienware.[6] Alienware continues to operate under its own brand name. Dell had been considering buying Alienware since the year 2002, but did not make any action of purchase until March of 2006.[citation needed]
References
- ^ Has Alienware been acquired by Dell?
- ^ Pickstock, Simon (January 9, 2008). "Alienware demos giant 'curved' widescreen". Tech.co.uk. Future plc. Retrieved 2008-01-09.
- ^ "Small gains seen from Dell's Alienware acquisition". MarketWatch.com. 2006-03-23. Retrieved 2007-12-30.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ About Alienware
- ^ AlienExchange
- ^ Dell Press Release