Bye, Bye XPS?
Say it ain't so, Dell! According to the WSJ, Dell is going to start phasing out its XPS line of gaming systems in favor of its Alienware line.
Next month, Dell will begin phasing out four gaming systems in its XPS line of PCs, leaving the Alienware line that it acquired in 2006 as its sole offering to big-spending gamers, a largely male group predominantly 18 to 34 years old. A combined gaming design and development unit of the Round Rock, Texas, PC seller will oversee the seven current Alienware models.
It is an overdue but risky move. Alienware's colorful boxes and slick technology catapulted it to the top of the now about $12 billion gaming-PC market. However, under Dell, which continued to market its XPS gaming machines alongside the acquired machines, Alienware fell to earth. "Alienware lost some mojo," says Ted Pollak, a gaming analyst at market watcher Jon Peddie Research in Tiburon, Calif.
Dell's purchase of Alienware when it already had the XPS line really didn't make sense, but eliminating that line while focusing on Alienware, that does make sense.
Next month, Dell will begin phasing out four gaming systems in its XPS line of PCs, leaving the Alienware line that it acquired in 2006 as its sole offering to big-spending gamers, a largely male group predominantly 18 to 34 years old. A combined gaming design and development unit of the Round Rock, Texas, PC seller will oversee the seven current Alienware models.
It is an overdue but risky move. Alienware's colorful boxes and slick technology catapulted it to the top of the now about $12 billion gaming-PC market. However, under Dell, which continued to market its XPS gaming machines alongside the acquired machines, Alienware fell to earth. "Alienware lost some mojo," says Ted Pollak, a gaming analyst at market watcher Jon Peddie Research in Tiburon, Calif.
Dell's purchase of Alienware when it already had the XPS line really didn't make sense, but eliminating that line while focusing on Alienware, that does make sense.
