Dell shifts focus from XPS line to Alienware

Dell will be removing four desktop models from its XPS line in the coming months, The Wall Street Journal reports. The hardware manufacturer would like to focus on its Alienware brand.

After Dell’s acquisition of Alienware in 2006, the gaming computer manufacturer continued to design and build its own systems. In addition, Dell sold its own high-end computers for gamers under the XPS umbrella. With the large-scale procurement of parts, Alienware would automatically benefit from the lower costs. Although the acquisition of the brand made Dell a leading player in the high-end gaming market, the company was biting its own tail with the sale of its XPS models.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Dell wants to go radical now modify by shifting the focus in the high-end gaming segment to PCs bearing the Alienware brand. As a result, four desktop models would be dropped from the XPS line in the coming months. It is still unclear whether XPS laptops will also disappear from the range.

The development team behind the XPS series would also be added to Alienware’s design department. Dell hopes the change of course will bring a breath of fresh air to Alienware’s “somewhat sleepy” designers, according to anonymous sources. The new team would focus on, among other things, the use of new materials in the design of desktop cases.

With the change of course, Dell seems to want to market its gaming PCs under one brand in the future. Although the high-end gaming market, selling systems up to three times more expensive than ‘normal’ configurations, is relatively small, consumers in this segment would materially influence the purchasing behavior of others.