Dell: Reports of the XPS' Demise Exaggerated
Responding to reports that first surfaced in the Wall Street Journal, Dell issued a statement late Tuesday night regarding the future of the XPS line of gaming systems. While the WSJ indicated that Dell would be dumping the XPS line in favor of systems developed by Alienware, which Dell purchased in 2006, Dell denied this was the case - although the company did say that Alienware would get the lion's share of resources.
"Dell XPS and Alienware are both great brands...and both will live on," spokeswoman Anne Camden said in a blog. "But we are going to expand our focus on Alienware. We are going to invest like crazy in product development, design, and engineering to propel Alienware as the premier gaming brand in the future."
Camden emphasized that XPS is a premium, cutting-edge brand--beyond just a game PC label. "XPS remains an important Dell brand with its heritage of premium performance...In the last year, XPS has expanded well beyond a gaming brand--look at the XPS One, our first entry into the all-in-one market, the XPS M1330, an industry leading ultraportable or the XPS 420 desktop, designed for multimedia activities."
What does this all mean? While Dell will continue to produce gaming systems with the XPS badge, the uber-systems will come from Alienware. Rest assured, however, that you'll still have plenty of high-priced hardware to drop your dollars on from the XPS line. The question still remains however: how much of the XPS line will be gaming, and how much will not? That is for the future - and Dell - to decide.
"Dell XPS and Alienware are both great brands...and both will live on," spokeswoman Anne Camden said in a blog. "But we are going to expand our focus on Alienware. We are going to invest like crazy in product development, design, and engineering to propel Alienware as the premier gaming brand in the future."
Camden emphasized that XPS is a premium, cutting-edge brand--beyond just a game PC label. "XPS remains an important Dell brand with its heritage of premium performance...In the last year, XPS has expanded well beyond a gaming brand--look at the XPS One, our first entry into the all-in-one market, the XPS M1330, an industry leading ultraportable or the XPS 420 desktop, designed for multimedia activities."
What does this all mean? While Dell will continue to produce gaming systems with the XPS badge, the uber-systems will come from Alienware. Rest assured, however, that you'll still have plenty of high-priced hardware to drop your dollars on from the XPS line. The question still remains however: how much of the XPS line will be gaming, and how much will not? That is for the future - and Dell - to decide.
