Alienware Interview - News and Siteseeing

Continuing our series of interviews with reps from gaming PC companies, FiringSquad chats with Alienware's president and COO Alex Aguila:

FiringSquad: First it’s been a few months since Dell acquired Alienware. Overall how has the transition been like from your point of view?
Alex Aguila: The transition has been moving swiftly. I think it’s important to state that both companies could not start aggressively sharing and executing on best practices until the acquisition was officially approved by the government, which happened on May 8th. But since then, both companies have been “off to the races” and are prioritizing the most important initial activities that our customers will benefit from.
FiringSquad: When the deal was first revealed, you mentioned that Alienware would benefit from Dell's large scale of operations. How has having the huge resources of Dell helping Alienware?
Alex Aguila: It’s pretty significant. Simply put, Dell has established resources on a worldwide basis which Alienware simply did not have. We’re already seeing cost improvements in major commodity areas. In addition, we’re also getting visibility to availability of scarce components and parts that will help us reduce our overall lead times on the vast majority of our product line.
FiringSquad: Dell continues their own XPS line of high end gaming PCs. Do you foresee a time where Alienware's efforts will be more fully merged with Dell's and we will see Alienware technology and products in Dell branded products?
Alex Aguila: That’s absolutely not in the cards and was not the basis of the merger. We firmly believe that both brands and product lines can co-exist and thrive. We believe more choice for the consumer is ultimately a benefit that everyone enjoys and it’s good for the PC industry.
FiringSquad: Is it becoming more important to have a big monitor (24 to 30 inches) to really appreciate PC games with high end graphics?
Alex Aguila: Absolutely. Given the declining cost of LCDs over the past few years, screen sizes (24”, 30” and even higher) are becoming even more affordable and there’s no question that larger LCDs generate a much more “immersive” experience that ultimately heightens the gaming experience. At the end of the day, users are sub-optimizing the high-end graphics subsystems they are purchasing if these systems are being used with smaller displays. There’s never been a better time to buy a larger LCD!
FiringSquad: What can we expect next from Alienware in terms of new products and services?
Alex Aguila: The future of the computer industry is always a hard one to predict simply because of the sheer nature of the business. Technology is always moving fast so you really never know what to expect. One prediction of the computer industry in the next few years that will certainly happen is heightened convergence of the analog and digital worlds, especially as the consumer electronics and PC product categories begin to merge. There is no substitute for PC-based technologies which can provide the easiest way to manage and share digital content in the home. The PC has the potential to become a central focus in the home as it can be used in conjunction with other products to control your lights, air conditioner, sprinkler system, alarm, etc. and Alienware will continue to participate in these exciting industry trends.
FiringSquad: Where does Alienware see the PC gaming market going, especially when more and more attention is being paid to console gaming?
Alex Aguila: We continue to be incredibly optimistic about the future of the PC gaming and high performance market. Over the past 10 years, numerous analysts and industry pundits have erroneously predicted the death of PC gaming because of the popularity of consoles and they don’t seem to understand that consoles have the inherent limitation of being outdated the moment you buy one. In fact, we tend to see spikes in media focus and consumer attention on our products when a new generation of consoles is announced, as is the case with Microsoft’s XBOX 360, which was shipped last year. The average PC gamer and console gamer are really two distinct users with unique marketing and product requirements and we believe that we favorably benefit from the “halo” effect generated by new console introductions. Finally, many console gamers tend to become hardcore PC gamers over time because their requirements and expectations tend to become more sophisticated and can only be satisfied with a traditional PC-architecture platform. The reverse rarely happens!
FiringSquad: How will the addition of Intel's Core 3 Duo chip in July affect gaming PCs?
Alex Aguila: We’re very excited about the upcoming Intel Core 3 Duo CPUs that will be announced in late July. Initial benchmarks in Alienware development labs are very impressive and we believe gamers are going to be delighted. It’s going to be an exciting time to buy a new PC for the holiday season and you’ll see Alienware announcing and expanding its product portfolio to take advantage of these powerful new Intel CPUs.
FiringSquad: What impact will Windows Vista have on PC gaming when it is released?
Alex Aguila: We think it will have a fairly significant impact. Vista promises a number of stability and visual interface improvements that all users, especially gamers, will value. Interactive gaming support is a powerful component of Vista and we believe that will heavily influence the growing appeal of network gaming. We’re disappointed that it won’t be available to ship to consumers during the holiday timeframe, but we support Microsoft’s decision to delay it until it is ready for prime time. Our initial testing with the various beta versions of Vista has been promising from a backward application compatibility standpoint and we think it will offer huge benefits in multimedia experience and digital content management, especially with portable devices.
FiringSquad: Finally is there anything else that you would like to say about Alienware and its role in promoting PC gaming?
Alex Aguila: You can count on Alienware to continue to promote PC gaming via expansion of its product portfolio and thrilling new technologies like our SLI graphics and our recently introduced 19” portable, the Aurora mALX. We believe that Alienware has a responsibility to promote PC gaming to larger segments of users who are interested in thrilling and immersive entertainment solutions. We’re especially excited about the growing role of the notebook as the ultimate portable platform for multimedia and gaming entertainment without sacrificing performance. The Dell acquisition presents Alienware with a number of strategic opportunities for us to invest in product portfolio and you can expect to see exciting innovations that will separate Alienware from the rest of the pack. John, I want to take this time to thank you and the firing squad for the opportunity to do this interview.

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