Interview with Frank Azor - Alienware

Q: Hi Frank, thanks for taking the time to speak to us again. Last time we spoke your role within Dell was running Product Planning and Management for the Alienware brand. Is this still the case and what are your main activities within that role?

A: Hi, it’s great to talk to you again, I can’t believe it’s been so long since we last spoke, time truly goes by fast when you’re having fun

. Yes, I continue to run product planning and management for all Alienware branded products including desktops, notebooks, peripherals such as our keyboards, mice, LCDs and headset, and my team also covers our software products including Command Center, AlienFX, etc... We are responsible for the planning and definition of all of these products which specifically includes designing the overall Alienware roadmap, selecting the right form factors, innovations, features and technologies per platform, aligning product schedules with major technology transitions, and ensuring we are meeting and exceeding customer expectations with regards to all aspects of the product’s design, performance, and usability.

Q: In the last year there have been a great range of products released by Alienware, many of them winning awards on HardwareHeaven.com. What has been your personal favourite in that timeframe and do you now own/use one?

A: I truly love all of our products, if we don’t love it we simply don’t launch it. Today I’m using an Aurora Desktop PC at home as my main home server and gaming station, for work and some occasional gaming when there’s time on the road, I carry an M11x with me every day. The M11x gets a lot of attention at airports and on planes.

Q: What about customers, is there a particular item which they have embraced more than the rest of your product catalogue?

A: We continue to see the trend moving towards laptops so that portion of our product line continues to do well. M11x definitely stole the show at CES this year winning awards before it was even launched! And the momentum hasn’t slowed since then, it continues to top the top ultraportable laptop charts and remains the first and only product of its kind. It’s been fun reading our customer reviews on Dell.com and Alienware.com, our customers absolutely love this product and we couldn’t be more proud of it.

Q: When we reviewed the M11x we found it to be a fantastic product, offering a great mixture of portability and performance. In fact it is pretty much alone in being a truly portable, useable gaming laptop. When did the idea to create such a product first get brought up within Dell/Alienware?

A: "Phantom", as we call it internally, is at least a 5 year old concept that we had been discussing within the halls of Alienware. We were struggling, however, with some significant issues beyond our control that prevented us from introducing it sooner. These issues had to get resolved before the market would accept Phantom. First we needed customers to accept smaller screen notebooks, fortunately the wide adoption of netbooks solved that issue for us. Next we needed affordable low power yet high-performance technologies for us to squeeze into a small form factor and still offer great battery life, thank you Intel CULV. Then we had to wait for games to move towards digital distribution and off of physical media as including an optical drive in Phantom would have made it too large and would have cut into the standard 8-cell battery we include to achieve our long battery life which was essential in our definition of the product. Most importantly we needed a highly efficient yet powerful graphics subsystem that gave the customer amazing battery life outside of gaming and Alienware-class gaming performance when gaming. We combined Nvidia’s powerful GT 335m graphics chip along with 1GB of dedicated frame buffer memory and Intel’s highly efficient integrated graphics to accomplish this. It wasn’t easy patiently waiting for all the stars to align but when they finally began to we timed it properly and finally made the vision of Phantom a reality in the M11x. Like I said earlier, we couldn’t be prouder.

Q: Compared to a standard 15/17 inch model, how easy was the process of bringing the M11x to market?

A: Every product has its fair share of challenges in development otherwise we’d be making it too easy on ourselves and we would never do that.

It takes a very talented and experienced engineering organization to pack the amount of performance, features and quality we put into all of our notebooks. We certainly don’t make it easy on the team but they always deliver.

Q: Looking back over the past year or so, is there anything you would have done differently with regards to the products you have launched?

A: Hindsight is 20/20 and sure we could have some a few things better here and there but nothing that keeps me up at night. I genuinely think we have the most innovative and overall best PC gaming product line in the industry today.

Q: In the Alienware product catalogue there are two families in the desktop range, Area-51 and Aurora. There would seem to be space there for a more compact system which uses a smaller case but retains the flexibility of a desktop system. Have you guys thought about moving back into the Small Form Factor/HTPC area?

A: We’re always looking for opportunities to develop the products gamers need and want.

Q: It appears that many of the major manufacturers in the technology world are putting a lot of resources into bringing out 3D and we see from the Dell Store that you offer the option of configuring the desktop systems with Alienware 3D Monitor, Nvidia GPU and 3D Vision Kit. What are your thoughts on laptops with 3D capabilities and can you tell us anything about Alienware's plans in this area?

A: It’s a category we are monitoring however I can’t share any plans at this time.

Q: When we last spoke to you we asked "What do you see as being the next big thing for the laptop market?" Your response was "All day battery life and anywhere, anytime internet connectivity". With the M11x we certainly took a step closer to this thanks to the 6 hour battery life (tested in real world scenarios). Do you still feel the quest for better battery life and connectivity are as important or has something else taken their place as the next big thing?

A: I still feel they are extremely important and will continue to be until they are solved once and for all. People absolutely love the battery life of their M11x and we spent significant effort ensuring they would. Few things frustrate me more than not having access to the internet when I need it or having to pay $9.99+ for a day’s worth of access. Fortunately anytime internet connectivity is getting a huge boost from technologies like WiMax and LTE and in the next 12-18 months we’ll make huge strides in finally freeing ourselves from the proverbial “hotspot.” Soon we’ll have internet everywhere and anytime at performance and prices comparable to what we pay for DSL or Cable at home today, the opportunities that’s going to open beyond just notebooks are endless.

Q: Do you have anything you would like to say to our readers before we finish up?

A: Within the last 12 months we launched the M17x, M15x, and M11x notebooks, Aurora, Area-51 desktops, AW2210 22”, AW2310 3D 23” LCDs, and our TactX Mouse, Keyboard and Headset and we’re just getting started. In my over 12 years at Alienware I can honestly say that what we are planning to bring you in the next 12-18 months is the most exciting set of products we’ve ever planned. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to work on these amazing products and play in your world with them. Until next time...