This article is missing information about additional details and history prior to the Dell acquisition.(October 2019) |
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Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Computer hardware |
Founded | October 24, 1996 [1] [2] (as Saikai of Miami, Inc.) |
Founders | Nelson Gonzalez, Alex Aguila |
Headquarters | The Hammocks, , United States |
Key people | Michael Dell (CEO) |
Products | Desktops Notebooks Peripherals Monitors |
Number of employees | 490 [3] |
Parent | Dell |
Website | dell |
Alienware Corporation is an American computer hardware subsidiary brand of Dell. Their product range is dedicated to gaming computers and accessories and can be identified by their alien-themed designs. [4] Alienware was founded in 1996 by Nelson Gonzalez and Alex Aguila. [5] [6] The development of the company is also associated with Frank Azor, [7] Arthur Lewis, [8] [9] Joe Balerdi, [10] and Michael S. Dell (CEO). The company's corporate headquarters is located in The Hammocks, Miami, Florida. [11]
Alienware was established in 1996 as Saikai of Miami, Inc. by Nelson Gonzalez and Alex Aguila, two childhood friends. It assembled desktops, notebooks, workstations, and PC gaming consoles. [12] [13] [14] [15] According to employees, the name "Alienware" was chosen because of the founders' fondness for the hit television series The X-Files , which also inspired the science-fiction themed names of product lines such as Area-51, Hangar 18, and Aurora. [16] In 1997, the corporation changed its name to Alienware.
Dell had considered buying Alienware as early as 2002, but did not go through with the purchase until March 2006. [17] [18] As a subsidiary of Dell, Alienware retains control of its design and marketing while benefiting from Dell's purchasing power, economies of scale, and supply chain, which lowered its operating costs. [18]
Initially, Dell maintained its competing XPS line of gaming PCs, often selling computers with similar specifications, which may have hurt Alienware's market share within its market segment. [19] [20] Due to corporate restructuring in the spring of 2008, the XPS brand was scaled down, and the desktop line was eliminated, leaving only XPS notebooks, [20] but XPS desktop models had returned by the end of the year. [21] Product development of gaming PCs was consolidated with Dell's gaming division, with Alienware becoming Dell's premier gaming brand. [22] [23] On June 2, 2009, The M17x was introduced as the first Alienware/Dell branded system. This launch also expanded Alienware's global reach from six to 35 countries while supporting 17 different languages. [24]
Alienware announced that it would be releasing a series of video game consoles starting in 2014, aiming to compete with Sony's PlayStation 4, Nintendo's Wii U, and Microsoft's Xbox One. [25] The first version in this series, the Alpha, ran Windows 8.1. [26] The operating system and ability to play PC games is what separates the Alpha from the eighth generation of video game consoles. At the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2016 (E3 2016), Alienware announced the second rendition of the Alpha, the Alpha R2. The R2 adds 6th generation Intel processors, a choice of either AMD's Radeon R9 M470X or Nvidia's GeForce 960 graphics cards, and support for Alienware's proprietary Graphics Amplifier. It also ships with Windows 10. [27]
The Graphics Amplifier allows an Alienware laptop to run most full length (or smaller, non-hybrid) desktop GPUs. [28] A proprietary PCIe 3.0 ×4 cable is used instead of the Thunderbolt 3 cable used on most other eGPUs. [29]
18 inch
17 inch
16 inch
15 inch
14 inch
13 inch
11.6 inch
In 2012, Alienware announced that they would discontinue the M11x model due to decreasing consumer interest in small form factor gaming laptops. [48] The company went on to offer refreshed models for the rest of their laptop range: the M14x, M17x, and M18x. [49]
Aurora
Aurora ALX
Area-51
Area-51 Threadripper Edition
X51
Alienware Alpha
Alienware monitors use a standard naming convention system for their product names.
The ending characters represent a mix of features, as follows.