20 Dell aliens would cause players classic Alienware-Dell, aliens, Alienware-IT information
In the science fiction film hit 90, Nelson Gonzalez and Alex Aguila, two childhood friends was the x-files, Star Trek, and independence day and other effects of a bunch of sci-fi movies and TV series, intends to set up a different kind of company. They named it as Alienware.
Why the world needs a new kind of computer company? Gonzalez and Aguila, the answer is two words: the game. Both are crazy gamers, but PC's performance not enough for Gonzalez to play that type of game. So Gonzalez convince Aguila quit his job, hit $ 5000. Then two men out credit cards and loans US $ 13,000, which founded the own this game-created custom PC company.
But gaming computer was still very small, two people also know that their products do not sell well. They set themselves a monthly sales target of at least 50-100 machines.
" Many people thought we were crazy," now at the age of 52 Gonzalez recalled, "only the players will understand our . ”
Lucky is that gamers buy their books. Now 20 years later, Alienware has become one of the most recognized PC brand in the world, thanks to water cooler desktop innovation of technologies and high-performance notebooks. Dell acquired the company in 2006, but they still did not forget to beginner's mind, continues to market the design weird niche PC.
Alienware PC and the game is not in numbers--after all, the annual sales of its products in the PC market is a fraction of 276 million shipments per year – while the origin of the story lies in the player's mouth.
Alien + hardware =Alienware
At that time, replace the hardware in a PC to keep up with property development--in order to play the coolest games--update on is a very difficult thing. Including Microsoft Flight Simulator, doom and the games are only equipped with The Ripper, extra video and run high performance PC graphics technology to achieve the best results. Therefore, Gonzalez and Aguila comes up with a gaming PC this idea.
Gonzalez quickly became a "technician", started in his garage as a friends PC. Then he realized that other people might also want to buy their own machines.
In the company name, the two "aliens" (alien) and "hardware" (hardware) mix together the two words. Gonzalez hopes the company can start with the letter a, as it ranks near the top in yellow pages. "The company was almost called AAAlienware. "Arthur Lewis quipped. This person is also the childhood friend of Gonzalez and Aguila, subsequently became the Chairman and President of Alienware.
In 1997, custom Alienware introduced the first desktop--Blade.
On a whim, Gonzalez sent the machine to popular magazines such as PC Gamer reviews hands, and get a better-than-expected response. Followed Area-51 in speed and won the praise of Boot magazine, it brought further by adding an additional cooling fan performance.
Although Alienware products need more than 1 month customized, average selling price of $ 4500 (brand average price at only US $ 600), there are still consumers started to buy their machine .
By the year 2005, Alienware's annual sales of more than 60,000 units, sales reached US $ 175 million. But they have bigger dreams. Companies wishing to enter the international market, and set a sales goal of $ 1 billion. 1 year later, Alienware agreed to be the world's largest PC maker acquired.
The two companies are using direct mode, but Dell's size advantage for them to be able to buy parts at lower prices. That's why Alienware is willing to be bought.
However, the view was expressed that it was not a good idea.
Voodoo PC founder Rahul Sood collection of two companies called "Dellienware" and warned this could herald a Alienware and super premium games market drift away (of course this is not the case, Voodoo PC is also six months after being acquired by HP). Meanwhile, Dell is unable to achieve sales targets because of poor customer service and supervision. "Dell hell" became a hot search term.
But criticism of the two companies fell on deaf ears. Dell's Alienware subsidiary, rather than into the door, and alien head logo continues to hang them in front of the Miami Office, as well as their products.
Alienware is now operating as well, by their designers to create their product, tailored for player's warranty policy also gives them freedom to upgrade configuration. Companies are still using the same call center, many older workers remain on the job.
And more importantly, still is considered a cool Alienware, brand of geek, and frequently appeared in popular TV show about geek culture, such as the big bang.
"They're like PC world sports car," Bob O'Donnell, Chairman of Technalysis Research said, "it is not for living, but to help communicate the Alienware will continue making kick-ass machine information. ”
Appearance of the space age
Alienware has begun to use a non-custom parts to make computers, but this did not last for a long time. Named Predator, product design, they want their products look like from the military base of the Sierra Nevada (area 51).
Alienware has considered several design, which is kind of like nuclear power plants, in order to show the strong performance of their products. "We have given consideration to the existing industrial designs. "Gonzalez recalled.
Finally, they designed a range of future technology and science fiction aliens between the exterior design. Its fuselage is very high, with 8 kinds of futuristic neon lights. Equipment casing made of alien head look, side of the grille looks like a huge black eye. Also in edge of the fuselage by adding lights, making it look more weird, like stuff from the spacecraft.
Released in 2003, Predator can also be easy to open and upgrade than those who need to twist off a large number of screws, then the shell knock tradition better. Because Alienware designers know that their machines will be opened by the user, they also mastered the neat lines of production workers, so that machines were open looks more beautiful.
"(Predator) after the last shock people", Kelt Reeves, Chairman of Falcon Northwest recalled, "they are in the yellow box in the shop most beautiful PC. ”
After attending the E3 game show, you'll find that Alienware's impact on the industry as a whole. Similar computers, headsets and other devices are now imitating their unique design style.
Alienware's popularity to help them to meet new technologies. For example, released in 2002, Area-51m was the first to run almost all gaming laptop 2010 Aurora-ALX spearheaded the introduction of a new cooling technology, allows a computer to run even faster; the 11-inch M11x notebook is the first truly portable gaming notebook on the market, it weighs less than half of the other similar products. In addition, Alienware also by virtue of the Alpha games became one of the first production of the living room PC manufacturers. In 2004, officially released the device, smaller than Microsoft's Xbox One.
The future of virtual reality
Alienware machine is now in the MacBook and the ruled Surface continues to exist in the market. High performance gaming PC in this niche market, their competitors, including Falcon Northwest, Origin PC and lightning snake. But it is suspected that large traditional desktops and bulky big-screen, high-performance notebook can continue to survive.
Alienware may have found one unexpected lifeline.
4 years ago, Oculus VR startup suddenly appeared in the game field and brought people in decades dream of virtual reality equipment. In 1 month's time, the company raised platform Kickstarter has raised nearly $ 2.5 million, and in 2014 was acquired by Facebook for $ 2 billion. Meanwhile, HTC, Sony, Google and industry giants such as Microsoft have launched their own VR products.
Oculus Rift helmet $ 599 listing in March this year, which require a high-performance PC to work properly, and this is Alienware's home .
"In 20 years time, we have been for PC gamers to solve these problems," Alienware's global General Manager Frank Azor said, "that set up the machine to become is more quick and easy, and provide appropriate help when things go wrong. ”
Alienware has joined Oculus and HTC launched with VR-ready designation of the computer, and in all future product development, they will take into account the needs of VR.
In some people's eyes, the PC game market for Tablet and mobile phones rise, PS4 console and Xbox One popular weakened. Now, someone has already changed to be referred to as the golden age of PC gaming. Thanks to the VR, a cheap PC and popular gaming masterpiece.
"You can find a lot of gaming PC product, but almost none of them are tailored to gamers, the" Azor said, "this is Alienware and main difference from any other manufacturer. ”
20年，戴尔
外星人将Alienware打造成玩家心中经典 - 戴尔,
外星人,Alienware - IT资讯
在科幻片风靡一时的90年代，Nelson Gonzalez和Alex Aguila两位童年好友受到了《X档案》、《星际迷航》和《独立日》等一大堆科幻电视剧和电影的影响，打算成立一段与众不同的电脑公司。他们将其命名为Alienware。
世界为何需要一家新型的电脑公司？Gonzalez和Aguila的答案就两个字：游戏。两人都是疯狂的游戏玩家，但当时PC的性能不足以支持Gonzalez所玩的那一类游戏。因此Gonzalez说服Aguila辞掉工作，砸进5000美元。随后两人又透支了信用卡，贷款1.3万美元，以此创立了这家专自己这种游戏玩家制作定制PC的公司。
但游戏计算机当时还非常小众，两人也知道自己的产品不会很好卖。他们为自己定下了每月至少50-100台机器的销售目标。
“许多人都觉得我们疯了，”如今以52岁的Gonzalez回忆道，“只有玩家能理解我们。”
幸运的是，游戏玩家的确买他们的账。如今20年过去，Alienware已经成为世界上识别度最高的PC品牌之一，这多亏了水冷台式机和高性能笔记本这样的技术创新。戴尔在2006年收购了这家公司，但他们依然不忘初心，继续向市场推出设计怪异的小众PC。
Alienware对于PC和游戏的影响并不在数字——毕竟旗下产品的年销量放在每年2.76亿出货量的PC市场完全是九牛一毛——而在于玩家口中所说的故事起源。
外星人+硬件=Alienware
在当时那个年代，替换PC中的硬件以跟上性能发展——从而玩上最新最炫的游戏——是件很困难的事。包括微软飞行模拟器、《毁灭战士》和《The Ripper》在内的热门游戏都只有配备额外视频和显卡技术的高性能PC才能达到最佳运行效果。因此，Gonzalez和Aguila就想出了游戏PC这个点子。
Gonzalez很快成了一名“技术人员”，开始在自己的车库为朋友做PC。随后他又意识到，其他人可能也会想买自己的机器。
在公司名称上面，两人把“外星人”（alien）和“硬件”（hardware）两个单词混合在了一起。Gonzalez希望公司能以字母A打头，因为这样在黄页上的排名能靠前一些。“公司差点就被叫做AAAlienware了。”Arthur Lewis打趣道。此人也是Gonzalez和Aguila的童年好友，随后成为Alienware的董事长兼总裁。
在1997年，Alienware推出了首款定制台式机——Blade。
出于一时兴起，Gonzalez把这台机器送到PC Gamer等热门杂志的评测者手里，并获得好于预期的回应。随后推出的Area-51在速度和设计方面获得了Boot杂志的赞誉，它通过加入额外的散热风扇带来了进一步的性能提升。
虽然Alienware的产品需要超过1个月的时间进行定制，平均售价高达4500美元（当时的品牌机平均价格只有600美元），还是有消费者开始购买他们的机器。
到了2005年，Alienware的年销量超过6万台，销售额也达到1.75亿美元。但他们还有更大的梦想。公司希望进入国际市场，并定下了10亿美元的销售目标。因此在1年之后，Alienware同意被当时世界最大的PC厂商戴尔收购。
这两家公司都采用的是直营模式，但戴尔的规模优势让他们能够以更低的价格购买零部件。这也是Alienware愿意被收购的原因。
但是，有人认为这并不是个好主意。
Voodoo PC的创始人Rahul Sood把两家公司的集合叫作“Dellienware”，并警告这可能预示着Alienware和超高端游戏市场的渐行渐远（当然实际情况并非如此，Voodoo PC也在半年之后被惠普所收购）。与此同时，戴尔也因为糟糕的客户服务而无法完成销售目标，同时还面连着监管。“Dell hell”一时成为热搜词。
但两家公司对于批评之声置若罔闻。戴尔让Alienware成为子公司，而不是将其纳入门下，同时也让外星人头的logo继续悬挂他们迈阿密办公室的门前，以及自己的产品身上。
Alienware如今的运营方式也是如此，他们的产品由自家的设计师所打造，为玩家量身打造的保修政策也给予了他们升级配置的自由。公司依然使用着相同的呼叫中心，许多老员工也依然在岗。
更重要的是，Alienware依然被认为是一个炫酷、极客的品牌，并频繁出现在有关极客文化的热门电视剧当中，比如《生活大爆炸》。
“他们就像是PC世界里的跑车，”Technalysis Research董事长Bob O'Donnell说道，“它不是用来过日子的，但帮助传递了Alienware会继续制作牛逼机器的信息。”
太空时代的外观
Alienware虽然已经开始使用非定制部件制作计算机，但这并没有持续很长时间。在代号Predator的产品设计当中，他们希望自己的产品看上去就像是来自内华达那个军事基地（51区）的东西。
Alienware考虑了好几种机身设计，其中一种像是核电厂，为的是展示自家产品的强大性能。“我们已经考虑过的现有的工业设计。”Gonzalez回忆道。
最后，他们设计出了一种介于未来科技和科幻外星人之间的外观设计。它的机身很高，还带有8种未来感十足的霓虹灯。设备的外壳还特意做成了外星人头颅的样子，侧面的黑色格栅看上去像是巨大的眼睛。设计师还在机身边缘加入了灯光，让它看上去更加诡异，就像是来自太空船上的东西。
2003年发布的Predator同样可以被轻松打开和升级，相比那些需要拧掉大量螺丝、然后对外壳敲敲打打的传统要强得多。因为Alienware的设计师知道自家机器会被用户所打开，他们还让生产工人掌握了整洁排线的方式，好让机器在被打开之后看上去更美观。
“（Predator）在上架之后让人们感到震惊”，Falcon Northwest董事长Kelt Reeves回忆道，“它们是商店里那一堆黄盒子中最漂亮的PC。”
参加过E3这样的游戏展之后，你就会发现Alienware对整个产业所产生的影响。同类计算机、耳机和其他设备如今都在模仿他们独特的设计风格。
Alienware的受欢迎程度也帮助他们去迎接新的技术。比如说，2002年发布的Area-51m就是当时第一款可运行几乎所有游戏的笔记本电脑；2010年的Aurora-ALX率先采用了新的散热技术，可让计算机以更快的速度运行；11英寸的M11x笔记本是市面上第一部真正便携的游戏笔记本，它的重量还不到其他同类产品的一半。此外，Alienware还凭借着Alpha成为首批制作客厅游戏PC的厂商之一。这款设备在2004年正式发布，体形比微软Xbox One还要小。
虚拟现实中的未来
Alienware的机器如今在这个被MacBook和Surface所统治的市场中继续存在着。在高性能游戏PC这个小众市场，他们的竞争对手主要包括Falcon Northwest、Origin PC和雷蛇。但有人怀疑，大尺寸的传统台式机和笨重的大屏、高性能笔记本能否继续存活下去。
而Alienware可能已经找到了一根让人意想不到救命稻草。
在4年前，一家Oculus VR的创业公司突然出现在游戏领域，并带来了人们在数十年里梦寐以求的虚拟现实设备。在1个月的时间里，这家公司在众筹平台Kickstarter中筹集到了近250万美元，并在2014年被Facebook以20亿美元的价格收购。与此同时，HTC、索尼、谷歌和微软等业内巨头也都纷纷推出了自己的VR产品。
599美元的Oculus Rift头盔在今年3月份上市，它需要一部高性能PC才能正常工作，而这恰好是Alienware的主场。
“在长达20年的时间里，我们一直在为PC玩家解决这些问题，”Alienware如今的全球总经理Frank Azor这样说道，“那就是让设置机器变得更加快速和简单，并在出问题时提供恰当的帮助。”
Alienware已经联合Oculus和HTC推出带有VR-ready标识的计算机，而在未来所有的产品研发当中，他们都会考虑到VR的需求。
在一些人的眼中，PC游戏市场已经因为平板和手机的崛起、Xbox One和PS4等家用机的流行而变得岌岌可危。而现在，已经有人改口将其称作是PC游戏的黄金时代了。这多亏了VR、廉价PC和热门游戏大作的到来。
“你可以找到许多能玩游戏的PC产品，但它们当中几乎没有一款是为游戏玩家所量身打造的，”Azor说道，“这是Alienware和其他任何一家厂商的主要区别。”