Alienware Corporation, a Miami, Florida based company founded in 1996, by its current CEO .

== History ==

According to employees, the Alienware name was chosen because of the founders fanfare of the hit television series The X-Files, hence the theme to their products, with names such as Area 51 and MJ-12. Alienware was origionally established to tap a niche in the high-performance game market, which then was not on the radar of the major manufacturers such as Dell. Since the high end game hardware was not widely distributed, the company s founders formed an Original_equipment_manufacturer which sold personal computers with the highest performing hardware and settings according to Benchmark (computing). As time progressed and the company matured with excess funding, the company expanded into the consumer electronics market which inevitably lead them to direct competition with some of their early distributors.

== Operations ==

As of FY 2003, Alienware brought in upwards of $30 million USD in annual sales, while minimizing expenses to aide an international expansion initiative launched in 2003 to maintain a presence in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom and Costa Rica to name a few. Alienware is a member of the Better Business Bureau of South Florida. In 2004, Alienware signed a deal with Best Buy and CompUSA to sell and distribute Alienware PCs nation wide. Both deals have since fell apart and are no longer in distribution.

== Marketing ==

Alienware currently markets itself through several ways. One such way is the fact that Alienware sponsors id software s anual game convention referred to as QuakeCon. Additionally, aside from sponsoring LAN parties, Alienware has also been known to run contests in partnership with game software manufacturers to win free Alienware branded systems. Another notable marketing tactic employed by Alienware is by sending demonstration machines to magazines such as PC Gamer to be reviewed in their publications. Alienware is also known to put out advertisements in magazines which cater to Alienware s core demographic namely PC gaming and other audiences of digital media related markets including specialty markets. Alienware currently sends out a weekly newsletter highlighting new products or services to subscribers. Alienware also maintains a print catalog of some preconfigured systems, only available by request. In 2003, Alienware had created a television advertisement that fit in a 30 second slot, however, it did not air locally in the company s native South Florida. The company provides an Affiliate_marketing to web site owners who are looking to make a commission on purchases made on referrals to their website. For businesses and users who prefer to pay by Credit_%28finance%29, the company offers leasing and financing options through American Express.

== Competitors ==

Alienware has traditionally competed with companies such as Falcon Northwest and Voodoo PC. Dell, Inc. has recently introduced its own line of gaming personal computers, which is seen by analysts as a direct assault on Alienware s dominance for specialty computing as well as their emerging dominance of home, business, education and government desktops, notebooks and servers.

== Products ==

Alienware Area-51, Alienware Area-51 ALX, Alienware Aurora, Alienware Bot, Alienware MJ-12, Alienware Area-51m, Alienware MJ-12m, Alienware Sentia, Alienware DHS, Alienware Hivemind

==External links==