For those who don't remember, Dell acquired Alienware in 2006 and hasn't done a thing with them since. Well, nothing as drastic as the HP acquisition of VoodooPC, which effectively had HP tell Voodoo to make them a good PC, and then go back to their toys. Dell simply gathered up parts to buy so Alienware wouldn't have to spend as much on components.

This, of course, didn't help too much because it just took too long, and Dell's own gaming PC's have been cutting into Alienware's revenue. Dell's XPS desktops haven't received the highest ratings, but they have proven to be powerful machines and come from a much larger company who isn't known to be exceptionally expensive, even though the XPS desktops were.

That's why today, Dell announced that it will no longer market or produce their XPS line of desktop PC's, and will focus its attention solely on Alienware's production of the high-end gaming platform. The laptop XPS line has sold well, and Dell will continue its production.

Good news or bad? Good, because while Dell and Alienware were (and are) essentially the same company, their self-destructive competition didn't do any benefit for anyone. It may be bad for Alienware, who has for so long prided itself in making custom computers for clients with hand-written and signed notes of inspection, etc, and now Dell comes in saying that they'll have to make gaming PC's for everyone. But then again, business is business. They'll do what they think is right, and we'll all laugh about it later on.

The Wall Street Journal