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Alienware is an American computer hardware company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Dell, Inc.[1] It mainly assembles third party components into desktops with custom enclosures for high-performance gaming. These products also support graphically intense applications such as video editing, simulation, and audio editing. Alienware also offers for sale rebadged laptops and computer peripherals, such as headsets, computer mice, monitors and keyboards. Alienware was founded in 1996 by Nelson Gonzalez and Alex Aguila. Alienware's corporate headquarters is located in Kendall, Florida, an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade County west of the city of Miami.
[edit] History Established in 1996, Alienware assembles high performance desktops, notebooks, and workstations. According to employees, the Alienware name was chosen because of the founders' fondness for the hit television series The X-Files, hence the theme to their products, with names such as Area-51, Hangar18, m15x, and Aurora.[2] 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 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[citation needed]. The company products are also differentiated by their sci-fi-based designs. [edit] Acquisition and current statusDell had been considering buying Alienware since the year 2002, but did not take any action until March 22, 2006, when it agreed to purchase the company.[3] The new subsidiary maintained its autonomy in terms of design and marketing. However, Alienware's access to Dell's supply chain, purchasing power, and economies of scale would lower its operating costs.[4] Initially, Dell maintained its competing XPS line of gaming PCs, often selling computers with the same specifications. In hindsight, the XPS line may have hurt Alienware's market share within its high end market segment. Due to corporate restructuring in the spring of 2008, the XPS brand has been scaled down. Product development of gaming PCs has been consolidated with Dell's gaming division, with Alienware becoming Dell's premier gaming brand. [5] On June 2, 2009, The M17x was introduced as the First Alienware/Dell branded system. Alienware now represents the premium performance space in Dell’s consumer family of products.[6] This launch also expands Alienware’s global reach from six to 35 countries. The Dell Alienware M17x allows support for a quad core processor (Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9300) and dual video cards in SLI configuration (GTX 280M) [7] On March 25, 2009, Alienware stated that it was considering closing its manufacturing bases in Athlone of County Westmeath, Ireland, and in Miami, Florida.[8] [edit] OperationsAlienware established its EMEA (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa) headquarters in Athlone, Ireland, in October 2002. As of the 2005 fiscal year, Alienware brought in upwards of $170 million USD in annual sales,[9] while undertaking an international expansion initiative launched in 2003 to maintain a presence in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and a call center in Costa Rica.[10] [edit] CompetitorsAlienware has traditionally competed with companies such as Sager Notebook Computers, AVADirect, Falcon Northwest, Puget Systems, 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. [edit] See also[edit] References
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