Alienware changing its face

Los Angeles (CA) - Alienware traditionally has been a niche computer manufacturer, catering their distinctive computers with glowing alien heads to people with deep pockets. Fully configured, many of these machines can cost several thousands of dollars, but the company is starting to focus on lower budget consumers such as college students and government employees. At DV Expo West, we chatted with Linda Roberds, product marketing manager, at Alienware and Kashef Mahmud, director of federal sales, about the future direction of the company.

According to Roberds, the middle-tier of the consumer market, which is currently dominated by the likes of Dell, Toshiba and HP, has been the main purchasers of Alienware laptops and desktops. Surprisingly, Roberds said that college students, who you wouldn’t expect to have the funds available, are the main purchasers of the company’s laptops and desktops. The company has recently introduced sub-$1000 laptops and will shortly start shipping their m5500i mid-tier laptop.

Government sales is another lucrative market for Alienware, so much so that it has opened up an office in Washington D.C. Kashef Mahmud, Director of Federal Sales, told us that the office is about three blocks from the White House and caters to military and civilian branches of government. Potential customers can test out desktops and laptops in a small demo room, but Mahmud says, "It’s an added bonus and not really the primary purpose of the office. The office makes it easier for us to visit the various agencies around town and give sales presentations."

Mahmud estimates that 65 percent of their federal customers are from the Department of Defense while 35 percent comes from civilian agencies such as NASA or the National Institute of Health. According to Mahmud, the agencies like to buy the top of the line laptops and medium power ones from the same vendor. "Obviously we rule the high-end market and cater to the power graphics user, but some employees just run Office," says Mahmud.

According to Roberds, most of the m7700 notebooks have been sold to the federal government. All Alienware laptops can have the glowing alien head and Alienware logo turned off at the factor, but Roberds says, "Very few of the federal customers elect to do so." Mahmud added that the FAA purchased a few laptops recently and did request to turn off the glowing lights.

Roberds told us that Alienware will still sell to high end users. Their top of the line laptop, the Aurora m7700, will have dual-core Athlon CPUs at "the end of December" which Roberds says is "right on schedule." When configured to the max, their monster m7700 notebook rings in at around $5000.

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