Credit: Fergus Halliday | IDG
With Nokia, Samsung, Huawei, Xiaomi and others all launching their respective bids to become the go-to smartphone for gamers in recent months, you have to wonder what brands familiar with courting that audience think of the trend.
We spoke to Alienware’s Frank Azor at this year’s PAX Australia and he admitted that gaming smartphones are a category that the traditionally PC-focused brand does consider from time to time.
Interestingly, Azor says that if Alienware were to attempt a gaming phone they’d be unlikely to do so through an existing partner in the mobile space but instead go their own way.
“We’re not interested in extending our brand into categories where we’re not directly influencing, designing or defining the product itself. We’re very protective of the Alienware brand, which is why we created the Dell gaming G-series brand because we didn’t want to dilute it in any way.
“We do consider gaming smartphones all the time. We are always looking at the category and how it’s emerging and developing. Up to now, the technology opportunities that we’ve found in the traditional smartphone category to truly call yourself a gaming smartphone haven’t been there yet.”
According to him, “when you look at the performance technologies, the performance [technologies] in smartphones is even more democratized than they would be in PC, for example. Everyone’s using the same chips. There’s not a lot of opportunity for significant overclocking or significant graphics integration. So a lot of the things that have helped us be successful in the PC space, those technology opportunities aren’t there yet in the gaming smartphone or smartphone space.”
Azor says that “until those opportunities present themselves and we can bring to market what we feel would be a gaming smartphone that merits that title, our consideration has remained just that.”
Alienware was at this year’s PAX Australia to show off its new ‘slim & light’ Alienware M15 gaming laptop.
Disclosure - MSI covered the cost of our flights and accommodation for PAX Australia 2018.
