Yesterday (Monday) night at 10:02pm, Engadget made a blog post that Dell had announced that they were going to be getting rid of the XPS desktop and laptop models of personal computers.  Engadget made this post based on an article that was posted on the Wall Street Journal’s website.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/12/dell-dropping-xps-focusing-on-alienware/

This was a huge shock to me.  After I read the Engadget article, I wasn’t able to read the Wall Street Journal article because I don’t have a subscription, I immediately went to the Dell IdeaStorm website.  This is a website that contains ideas that are submitted by Dell users.  Other Dell users then promote/demote the idea and it receives a score based on those actions.  Dell moderators track the ideas and make recommendations to the proper department if they see an idea that is viable.

On the IdeaStorm website, I submitted an idea titled "Keep the XPS Product Line" with the following description:

According to Engadget, Dell is going to be dropping the XPS product line and focusing on the Alienware brand for gaming and high performance computing. Promote this Idea to let Dell know that we need to keep the XPS desktop and laptop product line.

Over the last 25 hours, this idea currently has a score of 250.  Apparently this was fast and high enough for Dell because at 8:23pm, YourBlog (a Dell blog that is "a place for people to help one another use personal technology in new and sometimes novel ways") author Anne B. Camden made a post titled "Calling All Gamers."

Below are a couple of excerpts from this post:

Dell XPS and Alienware are both great brands – arguably the greatest brands in PC gaming – and both will live on. But we are going to expand our focus on Alienware. We are going to invest like crazy in product development, design and engineering to propel Alienware as the premier gaming brand in the future. We are integrating the best gaming product development, engineering and design teams in the industry — Alienware and XPS — and this all-star lineup will be supported by a worldwide sales and marketing organization.

And XPS gaming systems will remain an important part of our gaming product portfolio. We don’t plan an early phase-out of these systems as the WSJ incorrectly stated, and in fact will continue to refresh them to keep them on the front edge of gaming:

This Camden post was then mentioned on the Direct2Dell blog ("a blog about Dell products, services, and customers").  Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger, referred to the YourBlog post with an additional post titled "What’s Happening to XPS?."  In this post, Menchaca, mentioned everything that I have already stated above and also referred other readers to the idea that I submitted on IdeaStorm.

After everything that I have read, it seems that in due time, Dell will be getting rid of the XPS product line but not as early as the Wall Street Journal originally reported.  According to Engadget, the Wall Street Journal originally reported "that as of next month Dell will be dropping four models."  Computer models come and go as times change and that is the nature of the computing industry; which can be so much fun and so frustrating at the same time.

I hope that Dell sticks to what they say and takes a good look into the success of XPS components before they give them the axe.  If they get rid of the XPS product line too fast and don’t replace it with products that are similarly priced, they will lose a lot of customers.  Alienware systems are significantly more expensive than XPS systems.

Also keep in mind that businesses and universities that purchase a lot computers, usually have purchasing contracts with OEMs and in turn receive discounts.  While Alienware is an OEM, businesses and universities don’t purchase enough of this kind of computer to receive a contact and discounts.  This will force businesses and universities to purchase from the Dell Precision workstations for powerhouse computing.

Feel free to post any comments.