Dell BUYS Alienware

[Martyn]

I like Alienware, I like Dell. But I still cant work out if this is a good or a bad move for all of us :/.

Edited March 23, 2006 by Martyn

[BillyJack]

That would be cool if they started using AMD processors, but I highly doubt it. What if they only supply Alienware with intel processors? What if they start building the alienwares with cheap oem and integrated hardware? Either way, alienware is way to expensive and you can build a really good system for cheaper specially if you already have some decent hardware and you only need to upgrade. Someone mentioned competition with the processors. With Dell purchasing Alienware we are loosing competition with the gaming machines being built. You better hope the prices do not climb higher!

[thermal+paste]

dell bought them but

do you think they OWN them

?

grasshopper

[SamNeeds]

I don't really care about it TBH. Don't get me wrong, they build top notch PC's but they slap over the top price tags on them. You could build a computer of the same spec for half the price.

[+.Aaron Subscriber¹]

More on Cnet: http://reviews.cnet.com/4531-10921_7-64744...tag=cnetfd.blog

[PGHammer]

then what was the point in Dell buying the company if they don't want to integrate it into their offering.

Actually, I can think of several reasons.

1. Alienware *as a brand* is more gamer-focussed than Dell's own XPS brand.

2. Alienware allows Dell to have access to AMD processors (without necessarily endangering any existing discounts they get from Intel).

3. Alienware also allows Dell to *continue* pushing FP displays (in fact, that may have been the second-biggest reason *within Dell* for the Alienware acquisition).

In fact, Alienware may very well allow Dell to *kill* the largely-moribund XPS brand (which has been losing marketshare to, among others, *Alienware*).

[mc_leish]

Good stuff, now dell, please drop the prices on the alienware products and we have a deal!

amen. :alien:

[ThaOddie]

Dell S U C K S big time, crappy quality, old components....my thoughts go out to ALIENWARE...rest in peace

[viciv]

good news for Alienware :)

[quigley0]

from what I understand, everything will be the same, except now Alienware can tap into Dell's uber large supply line.

[L3thal Veteran]

Dell S U C K S big time, crappy quality, old components....my thoughts go out to ALIENWARE...rest in peace

I beg to differ :whistle:

[davewalden]

Alienware with exclusive Blu-Ray drives.

Blu-Ray..... <rolls eyes>

Just what we need..... more DRM hardware crap. NOT!!!

[Michael_C]

Imagine someone who would buy an Alienware, you think they'd even consider a Dell? They would be some Ub3r n00b if they bought a Dell... serously!

You'd have to be a n00b to pay that much when you can build a better PC for half the price anyway.

[Hawkeye]

Dell S U C K S big time, crappy quality, old components....my thoughts go out to ALIENWARE...rest in peace

Those first two things can be debated, as they are opinions, but the third thing you listed, old components, is absolutely untrue.

Dell is almost always in the front pack of OEM's and system builders in terms of getting new technology. Dell generally has the newest Intel processors, chipsets, and WLAN cards, as well as video cards from NVIDIA and ATI, and sound cards from Creative, and the latest desktop and laptop hard drives practically as soon as they are launched and announced by their respective manufacturers.

[NotChetHanks]

Actually, I can think of several reasons.

1. Alienware *as a brand* is more gamer-focussed than Dell's own XPS brand.

2. Alienware allows Dell to have access to AMD processors (without necessarily endangering any existing discounts they get from Intel).

3. Alienware also allows Dell to *continue* pushing FP displays (in fact, that may have been the second-biggest reason *within Dell* for the Alienware acquisition).

In fact, Alienware may very well allow Dell to *kill* the largely-moribund XPS brand (which has been losing marketshare to, among others, *Alienware*).

:yes: :yes: :yes:

from what I understand, everything will be the same, except now Alienware can tap into Dell's uber large supply line.

:yes: :yes: :yes:

[SirDarkness]

Dell S U C K S big time, crappy quality, old components....my thoughts go out to ALIENWARE...rest in peace

:blink: HAHAHA Gues you never owned a Dell Or Alienware... Keep on building!

I gues crappy quality comes from Sound Blaster, Nvidia, ATI, Intel, Agies. And the new Xfi sound card is too old for you as well? Maybe the 7900gt SLI is not NEW enough for you... Maybe you still think a 486 thats hidding in your closet is NEW. AHHHHhhh Who am I kidding. Some people rather ride bicks then drive cars.

PEACE!! :cry: :alien: :woot: :shiftyninja: :sleep: :whistle: :cool:

HEHE Soooooo Yesterday AMD has a faster Proc and DDR2 is OUT now. Plus you should get a 600W sli PS.. OH and You can Raid and have 10K rpm HDs Dells Are more UP to date than you its all how you build it baby... YAY!

"PC

ASUS Vento 3600 GameCase

ASUS A8N SLI Deluxe Mainboard

AMD Athlon 64 4200+ X2 Dual Core Manchester

2048 MB Kingston Valueram DDR400

Tagan 480W PSU with 28 amp on 12V rail (you can weld with this baby!!)

XFX Geforce 7800GTX (OC @ 520/1300) (oh yeah baby!!)

Maxtor 200gb 7200rpm 8mb cache 32bits mode

2 x Maxtor SATA 160 GB Stripe

Intel Pro NIC Gigabit

Plextor PX708A DVD Rewriter +/-

Samsung DVD Player

dual monitor: 19" TFT Monitor

: 40" Philips Matchline LCD TV

Broadband ADSL 6Mb Down 1Mb Up"

[WDGC]

Basically these aquisitions are for long term gain. Dell buys Alienware for x amount of dollars. Dell uses its power to further promote the Alienware brand, Alienware sales rise, Alienware profits rise. Since Alienware belongs to Dell; Dell's profits rise.

This also expands Dell's reach beyond the typical home PC and now enters into the custom gaming, upscale, extreme PC. Just another market share Dell probably would never reach with its name. Imagine someone who would buy an Alienware, you think they'd even consider a Dell? They would be some Ub3r n00b if they bought a Dell... serously!

Just so.

[MacOSXMan]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO to Alienware! :alien:

We'll have to see what DELL does to this company, and how they integrate it into their offerings, hopefully they won't screw this up :whistle: ....

[flapjackman176]

the underlying consept here is.. dell is going to move all of alienware to India and now current alienware owners will have to suffer from non-understandable customer service, and resource hogging software that you'll only find from Dell.

[leedogg]

Smart move by dell. This allows them to enter the AMD market and utilize AMD cpu's without directly ****ing off Intel. To further placate Intel, they've created and released an Intel version of a gaming system (Renegade) at virtually the same time. Expect AMD servers and other lines of AMD products out of Alienware soon.

[Cole]

Edit: ah, it's on the front page. This is good news as long as they moderate the alienware prices. :)

Yep, hopefully this will allow for Dell to expand to quality built computers instead of just dirt cheap ones. :p

[OxideNOS]

Hope to see some of those dell coupons working with Alienware.

[SirDarkness]

the underlying consept here is.. dell is going to move all of alienware to India and now current alienware owners will have to suffer from non-understandable customer service, and resource hogging software that you'll only find from Dell.

LOL does no one here read?? they will be ownd and op by the current owners and will be a sep entity. All manufactuing and such will be in alienwares hands not dells. Geeeeez and for all the resourse hoggin progies. UN.... INstall them.... Geez there is like 4 and they are trials. I know alienwares don't just have a clock in the taskbar from factory so give up the poor excuses.

:rofl: :sleep: :alien:

Hope to see some of those dell coupons working with Alienware.

Meetoo. :yes:

[Cloud Geek]

"Dell's memo to its workers regarding AW

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am not sure if I am allowed to post this but oh well. It is the memo (via email) that was sent the Dell Team members regarding the aquisition of alienware. My cousin in Texas works for Dell.

==============================================

Today we signed a definitive agreement to acquire Alienware to further expand our portfolio of high-performance PC solutions. Alienware is a successful, high-growth company with a highly respected brand.

Dell?s XPS products and Alienware?s products complement each other to address a wider range of enthusiast and high-performance PC customers. The acquisition of Alienware will enhance our commitment to customers seeking extreme performance. Overall, customers benefit from us offering a wider choice of products in this category, including the best performance, product options and value. We believe that Alienware and Dell have excellent cultural alignment, as both companies were founded on the direct business model.

Following consummation of the transaction, Alienware?s CEO and founder, Nelson Gonzalez, will report to Jim Schneider, Dell?s senior vice president and chief financial officer. Alienware will operate as a stand-alone, wholly owned subsidiary and maintain its own product development activities, product marketing, sales and technical support operations and brand under the same management.

We will not sell or service their products and they will not sell ours. We expect to provide our expertise in supply chain management and logistics, but we will keep our operations separate. In terms of financial reporting, Alienware?s results for external purposes will be recorded in the geographies where they occur.

While the acquisition is being announced today, it will not be final until all regulatory and other conditions are met, approximately 30 to 60 days from now. Until then, we must maintain and operate the companies as separate entities. All integration activities must wait until the closing of the acquisition. Accordingly, we are asking all employees not to make any contact with Alienware personnel until closing.

This announcement clearly signals to our customers our commitment to high-performance computing.

=================================================

I thought it was interesting, but I know if reaffirms some of the

things that were being kicked around on the forums (dell & aw being separate). Interestingly enough, it actually tells us who aw will report to.

--K1tty"

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=141889

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I remember:

"Dell shuts down support forums to quell mountain of complaints"

"From TheRegister

Want to complain on Dell's website about its customer service? Too late - the Customer Support Forums, operational until last Friday, have been shut down, apparently to try to quell bad publicity there about Dell products and especially after-care service.

While all the other equipment forums are still working - last time we looked - the areas where you could vent your anger or delight about Mikey Boy's company were shut with a peremptory notice saying that "The Customer Service boards on the Dell Community Forum will be retiring at 3:30pm this Friday, July 8th. ... Customer Service FAQs will still be available to help answer your questions. If you need further assistance, you may contact our customer service team via Chat for any non-technical issue you may have." (The UK site appears not to have such a forum.)

Why? Could it be anything to do with the unbelievably corrosive effect on Dell's reputation that has followed its insistent refusal to deal with problems with the Dell Dimension 4600 power supply ?

Noted Windows expert Ed Bott, who has been tying together some of the threads of the tale, comments: "Dell continues its race to the bottom with the new management strategy: If your customers continue to ask annoying questions, stop listening."

Dell didn't have a response to our query about why it had shut the forums, although in a chat with Christoper Carfi one Dell service bod said: "We are closing the Customer Service boards on the Dell Community Forum for the time being as there certain updates which needs to be taken care of."

Dell is not the first company to find its customers revolting online; Apple has taken similar measures in the past, though not gone quite as far as deleting an entire category of discussion.

Part of the problem seems to have stemmed from Jeff Jarvis, a columnist on the San Francisco Examiner, who summed up his anger in a letter to a Dell VP, saying: "This machine is a lemon. Your at-home and complete care service is a fraud. Your customer service is appalling. Your product is dreadful. Your brand is mud."

That has snowballed into growing pressure on Dell to improve its customer service, at precisely the time it has been driving ever-harder to improve margins. Unfortunately, the two conflict: excellent customer service can't be measured by standard accounting metrics because it doesn't show up until people renew purchases or service contracts - which is a future, uncertain, event. However, you can cut costs in customer service today and it shows up in the bottom line.

Jarvis's travails sparked a little civil war in Blogistan, where some thought he deserved special treatment from Dell as an "A-lister" and "influential", while Bott pointed out that "Google Dell customer service problems and you get 2,950,000 hits, which seems like a lot by any standards. (Just to check, we did "Britney Spears" customer service problems.

In fact Dell's growth has clearly been putting increasing on its customer service operations. In 2000 it won high marks in a PC World survey of subscribers. But fast forward to 2004 and it was slipping badly.

Meanwhile, Jarvis found his own solution to his problems. He bought an Apple Powerbook. Doubtless Apple's moderators are already readying their "delete" keys."

http://www.notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=94967

http://www.theregister.com/2005/07/11/dell_customer_support/

https://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=343894

http://www.alienware.com/standalone_pages/aw_difference.aspx

at t:laugh:om :laugh:

Edited March 25, 2006 by MvT Cracker

[Cloud Geek]

Dell's Alienware Acquisition caused by Threat from Apple

With the recent Intel/Apple relationship it?s clear that 15% (or whatever) of the consumer space for Dell may not be enough. Apple is likely to go to 8% with the help of Intel over the next year or so. The PC gaming market is threatening Dell?s ?perceived technology leadership? ? and ultimately the consumer space.

http://www.digg.com/apple/Dell_s_Alienware...reat_from_Apple