Mark Vena on Dellienware 155
Edison Trent writes "Tom's Hardware has a piece up on the acquisition of Alienware by Dell in which they've interviewed Mark Vena, Alienware's VP of Marketing, who spilled some interesting beans on the acquisition. Among them is the fact that Michael Dell himself (aka Mr Steve Jobs-alike) supposedly led the acquisition from the beginning (will this force out Alienware management later?), and that Dell will be handling all of Alienwares supplier relationships, including that with AMD. In the more mundane and day to day changes Dell will also be backing Alienware financing of their expensive machines, which is something Alienware couldn't have done before on its own and because Dell will be handling all of Alienwares suppliers the company expects to get more allocation of scarce products such as new graphics cards and ordering an Alienware will no longer be like putting in an order for a car in East Germany."
Editing 101 (Score:4, Insightful)
You can, you know, edit the submissions. Holy run-on sentences. To wit:
In the more mundane and day to day changes Dell will also be backing Alienware financing of their expensive machines, which is something Alienware couldn't have done before on its own and because Dell will be handling all of Alienwares suppliers the company expects to get more allocation of scarce products such as new graphics cards and ordering an Alienware will no longer be like putting in an order for a car in East Germany.
This is 5th or 6th grade level writing. Even MS Word would have suggestions to fix it.
Sadly (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, according to Microsoft Word 97, this scores at a 12.0 reading level o
Re:Sadly (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Sadly (Score:2)
Re:Editing 101 (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Editing 101 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Editing 101 (Score:2)
What the hell is that supposed to mean??
Re:Editing 101 (Score:1, Flamebait)
Re:Editing 101 (Score:1)
Re:Editing 101 (Score:1)
http://www.essayally.com/ [essayally.com]
Re:Editing 101 (Score:1)
I've underlined it in green too.
Still AMD? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Still AMD? (Score:4, Interesting)
"Wholly Owned Subsidiary"
Separate legal entity. Intel may be pissed off about it, but Dell is still Dell, and Alienware was using AMD processors anyway; no one gained or lost any ground in marketshare.
~W
Re:Still AMD? (Score:2)
Alienware should not be AMD fanbois (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Still AMD? (Score:1)
Why? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Why? (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:1)
I don't, however, necessarily want to change the perceptions of people like you, as I only paid about $5 for this machine (a used Dell Pentium III system.) It's useful to people like me who make 'best use' of less-than-new hardware for people like you to be out spending three or four figure amounts on the machines we buy with pennies-on-the-dollar a few years from now.
So flame on, tiger. Buy the ne
Re:Why? (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:1)
Re:Why? (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Why? (Score:2)
And no games. Which kinda defeats the purpose.
Re:Why? (Score:1)
Re:Trolling? (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:3, Interesting)
If someone told me a few years ago that there's big money (in per-unit profits) to be made in throwing together off the shelf boards, I wouldn't have believed them. It's not that hard to do.
Re:Why? (Score:2)
The impressive thing was that Alienware showed up when the world was convinced computers were driving to a slim margin/cheapest possbile world. They identified a market where people were willing to pay big premiums that was previously dominated by do-it-yourselfers. Before Alienware, "gaming rigs" were a hobbiest thing
Re:Why? (Score:2)
Re:Why? (Score:3, Insightful)
Some people don't care so much about looks, and others actually thing they look cool.
What I don't get is people who buy Alienware when you can get the same thing at a fraction of the cost if you build it yourself.
My thoughts (Score:3, Insightful)
They did the same thing with laptops. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:They did the same thing with laptops. (Score:3, Insightful)
Exactly!
I bought a Clevo D470W for about half the price of what Alienware were selling a green version of the same laptop.
Re:They did the same thing with laptops. (Score:2)
Re:My thoughts (Score:3, Insightful)
This is so scary... I'll stick with Apple... Dept. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:This is so scary... I'll stick with Apple... De (Score:1)
Re:This is so scary... I'll stick with Apple... De (Score:2)
What? (Score:5, Funny)
Here's a hint: one wears a turtleneck and makes innovative computer products, the other one is Michael Dell.
Next Time on Slashdot: "Linus Torvalds (Linux's Bill Gates) tells people to use KDE!!!"
Re:What? (Score:2)
Re:What? (Score:3, Insightful)
You mean 'wears a turtleneck and talks about computer products'. Steve Jobs may have worked on them in the past, but he's all PR nowadays. Other people make the products.
Re:What? (Score:1)
He leaves behind him a trail of the people he has used and burned out.
But marketing shills like him have always been necessary to get 'the money guys' in line and supporting cool new products.
It's not a bad thing that Steve Jobs exists in the world. Not at all. But let's not buy into the myth that he's anything but a manipulative S.O.B. who happens to be useful.
The story I heard.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Hopefully Dell will not make this mistake (Score:5, Insightful)
Quite possibly the stupidest thing done in business is acquiring a successful company and then forcing out management that got you there in the first place.
A great example is the airline industry. I used to work for American Airlines and we bought AirCal in the late 1980s, a successful airline. Thinking that somehow we had possessed a magic talisman I suppose, we proceeded to throw the routes to the dogs and our California business went to hell. Then came the establishment of the San Jose "hub" which we did to mainly get coveted Tokyo routes. We signed a deal with the city of San Jose but the deal stipulated that if we ever downgraded San Jose that we could never land in the city again. All was well and good until Southwest came to California (a carrier that also forced us to close up shop in Nashville without a fight).
Within a couple of years Southwest was trouncing our ass and United but one carrier that stood up and fought back successfuly was Reno Air. They put up a great fight with Southwest and did ok. American then suckered Reno Air into subleasing the money losing gates and operations at San Jose and then something amazing happened: Reno Air prospered!
American, thinking like every other arrogant business, bought Reno Air, installed their incompetant management (rife in EVERY legacy carrier which is big reason why they are all hurting so bad now) and Southwest's response was a big "THANK YOU"! American bought their one big competitor and Southwest already knew that American could be taken fairly easily.
Mere possession does not give you advantage, culture does. That is why Southwest is so successful as well as Apple.
Re:Hopefully Dell will not make this mistake (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Hopefully Dell will not make this mistake (Score:2)
Re:Hopefully Dell will not make this mistake (Score:5, Funny)
So you work at Microsoft?
Re:Hopefully Dell will not make this mistake (Score:2)
Re:Hopefully Dell will not make this mistake (Score:2)
Oh well, I guess they can afford to lose the money, so who cares??
Re:Hopefully Dell will not make this mistake (Score:2)
Re:Hopefully Dell will not make this mistake (Score:3, Insightful)
They were only competition in the sense that they sold PC's-their volume was miniscule copmared to Dell. Dell bought the reputation. If they are smart they won't screw that up. I wouldn't hold my breath.
Re:Hopefully Dell will not make this mistake (Score:1)
An alien shaped computer? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:An alien shaped computer? (Score:1)
you and your quips (Score:4, Insightful)
McBride (Score:1)
Hey, don't confuse me with Darrel McBride-like references.
Re:you and your quips (Score:2)
So much so, that when I had the opportunity to get a laptop with company money as part of my package, I
Re:you and your quips (Score:2)
I went with a standard one year warranty on my Dell 5150. Motherboard died due to a design flaw Dell have never admitted to (casing wears into motherboard components). Basically it started with random shutdowns whenever you'd touch the left side of the computer, and quickly progressed to a computer that wouldn't boot. This laptop was treated very well too.
In the end it took about 4 months to sort out. I had bought using a credit card which doubled the
Re:you and your quips (Score:3, Insightful)
Let the battle of the anecdotes begin. A few years ago the hard drive died in my Inspiron 4100. A quick phone call and a technician visit on-site the next day had the whole thing sorted out. Total time spent on the phone and with the repair technician was probably 20 minutes. Last week, an Optiplex GX270 died at work. A phone-based technician went through troubleshooting with me and figured it was a faulty motherboard in under 10 minutes. Again,
Re:you and your quips (Score:2)
Note also that after all that mess I didn't get anything but an
Re:you and your quips (Score:2)
Re:you and your quips (Score:2)
Okay, I'm game... What's wrong with HP?
With the demise of DEC and Compaq, HP is the only company I'm aware of, still making workstations/servers like they used-to (bullet-proof).
Re:you and your quips (Score:2)
Not to mention the fact that at least at one time (I don't know about now), HP refused to ship driver/os cds with the machines. Instead, they demanded you BUY them if you wanted them (and they weren't cheap).
See UserFriendly's take (Score:3, Funny)
Let the probing questions begin... (Score:2)
All memory of those posts will not be erased from your memory.
East German Cars (Score:4, Informative)
You mean even terrorist sponsoring countries like... *Canada* will be able to get Alienware computers now? Wow, that would be amazing, considering you can't get them shipped up here for love or money for some bizarre reason. All the people I know that have them had them shipped to some border town where they picked them up themselves.
Re:East German Cars (Score:2)
There is nothing special about alienware computers, they just look stupid and thats all you're paying for.
Re:East German Cars (Score:2)
Re:East German Cars (Score:2)
None of those sexy Alienware Laptops though.
Conspiracy Theory of the Day (Score:3, Insightful)
1: Intel could Never buy Alienware and force them to become an Intel-only shop.
2: Dell Can buy Alienware because Dell is already in this business and attempting to compete at the top end with their own immensely overpriced ($9,900) system already.
3: It would have been worth it to Intel to give Apple a lifetime supply of Intel processors for Free just to silence their harshest x86 critic. (Maybe they have done exactly that, however, that's a theory for another day.)
4: If Dell switches Alienware over to Intel Conroe processors exclusively in a few months claiming that On This Day Intel is the best choice, therefore we are going to use them Forever Forward, this will not spawn any anti-trust suits because Dell is simply making a business decision.
5: Dell is now Intel's friend forever, and gets as good a deal with new processors as Apple is clearly seeming to be getting.
I know I left that tin foil hat around here somewhere.
Re:Conspiracy Theory of the Day (Score:2)
Dell is big enough they can always threaten to switch to AMD to get better deals from Intel (and they probably NEED to do that periodically, even if they are Intel's best friend). And they might want to switch to AMD for some systems when AMD is the clear leader at the moment (like right now and the past few years, but it looks like soon Intel may be ahead of AMD for awhile).
Dellianware?! (Score:2, Funny)
What's wrong with German cars? (Score:2, Insightful)
People who buy German cars like to be able to specify all the options and customise their car to their liking. They know they are paying more, but feel they are getting a car built just for them.
It is the same with Alienware. People who buy these computers want to customise them. They are high end, expensive, personalised machines - that's their niche. Buyers to not want just another beige box, or that might h
Re:What's wrong with German cars? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:What's wrong with German cars? (Score:3, Informative)
Support improvement? (Score:2, Interesting)
Hopefully they'll offer better support. An analogy: Alienware support is to Dell support like a Lada is to an Alfa Romeo. Sure they can both suck, but at least the wait for repair is shorter for the Alfa. I know someone who owned not one, but three Alienware units. The first declared 'lemoned' and replaced. The replacement spent 6 weeks of it's 52 week warranty period at repair. After the warranty was up,
Re:rebates (Score:4, Funny)
I'm sure Sigourney Weaver will be first in line.
Re:rebates (Score:2)
And for some more humor-based-on-everyone's-favorite-weed-smoking-s
Re:Ewwww (Score:3, Insightful)
I own a Mac and a PC, neither was purchased based on looks. I'm sure Apple marketing would like you to think otherwise, but your computer's look is nice but far from important to most people. Beside's Apple's look is pretty conventional, except for the Mini. It's Mac OS X that looks different and makes people buy Macs, not the case.
Re:Ewwww (Score:1)
Re:Ewwww (Score:2)
Your statement is self contradictory, "pretty rich suburb" and "plenty of people". Apple's 3-4% marketshare proves otherwise.
Even among Apple users your statement is nonsense. Most people who buy Macs do so because of Mac OS X, not as a fashion statement. Again, Mini's are the exception regardi
Re:Ewwww (Score:2)
Yes, that's why the original iMacs, with the terribly crappy OS8, failed so miserably in the market-place.
.
Hmm, my sarcasm meter seems to have exploded.
Re:Ewwww (Score:2)
Yes, that's why the original iMacs, with the terribly crappy OS8, failed so miserably in the market-place.
You confuse Apple fanbois and marketing with actual consumers. Mac OS 8 may not be as shiny as X but many people preferred it to Windows. Even with the iMac rev A the advocates *of the day* talked about usability and price. It's look was retro 70s and while some folks liked the look it was *not* what was important to the
Re:Ewwww (Score:2)
I find that very hard to believe, mainly because I've used it extensively...
The iMac was vastly over-priced for it's specs, and nobody with remotely human-like hands could possibly use that dammed mouse.
You can say that
Re:Ewwww (Score:2)
Mac user/dev since '83 (not a typo, was an Apple II dev so grandfathered into Mac dev program), knew dozens of *users*, ignoring programmers, who bought iMac rev As, I'm going on what they said. Similar stories from retailers. I also tracked the newgroups and forums at the time, similar info. It was price, a great deal on a Mac compared against previous Mac systems. The fact that it
Re:Ewwww (Score:2)
I think not. You'll need a lot more evidence than that to convince me (or anyone else, I'm sure).
Re:Ewwww (Score:2)
No, I am saying those who bought a rev A iMac for looks were a small minority of rev A iMac purchasers. That the dozens that I personally met, that people selling Macs in retail, that people advocating Macs on usenet and other forums, considered price/performance
Re:Ewwww (Score:2)
The Mini is the only exception and that has to do with size not style. You can't get much more conventional than an iMac, it looks like a flat panel monitor. That's a great thing, but it is not unconventional looking, it was not even a first from a major PC vendor. If I did not have a couple of good flat panels laying around I may have purchased an iMac rather than a Mini.
Re:Ewwww (Score:2)
Dell already sells something like 10 computers for every Macintosh sold. I don't think Dell is all that worried.
Apple stock down 30% in 3 months (Score:2)
[humor]
But where would 97%, errr - excuse me - Apple's been on a run - 96% of the public get their computers?
[/humor]
Hey, one lame joke deserves another.
More importantly, with Apple's recent nosedive in stock price, 30% in three months - 86.40 to 59.96 you probably don't want to advocate Macs and mention stocks in t
Huh? (Score:2)
Even if you were correct, which isn't the case:
AAPL 23-Dec-05: 73.35$
AAPL 24-Mar-06: 59.96$
Wich looks more like 20% to me ...
AAPL still looks like the better investment compared to DELL:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?t=1y&s=AAPL&l=on&z= m &q=l&c=DELL [yahoo.com]
And to explane the ACs joke to you: He/she was referring to Michael Dell who in 1997 answered [com.com] the question what he'd do to save Apple: "What would I do? I
Re:Giving money back to shareholders (Score:2)
Re:Dell still doesn't need AMD (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Dell still doesn't need AMD (Score:2)
-Nobody is predicting (not me anyway) AMD will be "dead" as result of new Intel microarchitecture.
-All of the critisism of the AnandTech is weakened (in my mind) by the lack of recognition, no matter what nits you want to pick about the level of comparison to the AMD FX cpu that the Conroe is a very competent, competivive design that a sensible vendor might choose to use over the FX.
-Dell has been pretty sucessful with an all-Intel strategy and if
Re:All about product differentiation (Score:3, Insightful)
Heh, AC, your jealousy is showing.
Your first point seems to indicate that you're using the OEM software load. Wow, sure sounds like you've been "computing" for 22 years.
Why on earth would OEM vs OTS software matter? More importantly, why would this indicate anything about anyone's experience. My Dell issue can be summed up in two words: hardware problem.
Your second
Re:All about product differentiation (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Who is driving? (Score:1)
Re:Slashbot Rhyme (Score:2)
+5 from me, if I could mod atm.