Alienware co-founder Frank Azor discusses the internal corporate dynamics and brand competition following Dell's acquisition of Alienware.
Insight
Azor: Boutique PC makers gain advantage via emerging tech unfit for mass production
“Because we were smaller, we were, we had access to certain components and ultra high tech and emerging technologies that weren't ready for mass scale and mass adoption. So that we used our size to our advantage.”
Opinion
Azor: Alienware Hardware Is Instantly Recognizable Without Its Logo
“Alienware was, is still one of the few brands that has, like, a personality behind it where you can cover up the logo and know immediately that that is an Alienware product.”
Assertion Partly supported
Early Alienware let customers mail in games for factory pre-installation
“We would actually tell customers they could send us their games, they could send us their joystick, their game pads, whatever hardware they wanted pre-configured on the computer, they can mail it to us. We would install and configure everything for them, so th…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Merchant processors held Alienware's revenue for 60 days over fraud suspicions
“And they'd be like, oh, we have to hold it for 60 days to make sure this is legitimate. And we're trying to run a business. We have to, you know, you have to buy parts, you have to pay yourself, you have to pay rent, you have to pay services. And yeah, they wo…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Alienware harvested scarce 1 GHz AMD CPUs from brand new Gateway PCs
“When AMD launched the first one gigahertz processor, we couldn't get our hands on it, so Nelsonerotics came up with the idea, just buy a bunch of gateways that have the processor in it. We'll take out the one gigahertz We'll put a cheaper two or 300 dollar pro…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Enabling direct online ordering scaled Alienware's sales to over 100 PCs monthly
“I think the inflection point was when we evolved the website so that customers could actually order it on the website instead of just configuring it. You know, and that is when things started going from, like, 20, 30 computers a month to 50, then 70, then a hu…”