Dell's Frank Azor says no to Alienware gaming phones and more consoles

Frank Azor, the VP and General Manager of Alienware, Gaming, and XPS at Dell, has made it clear in an interview with The Hindu BusinessLine that Alienware has no plans to develop a console or get involved in the console market again. Alienware has dabbled with consoles before: There was 2014’s Alienware Alpha and 2016’s Alpha R2 device. However, these PC/console hybrids didn’t challenge the Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo domination of that particular market and Azor believes Alienware is better off supporting Xbox software on its computers instead.

It seems the Dell bigwig isn’t a massive fan of gaming smartphones, either. He stated the company currently has no desire to get involved with developing this type of device, and he wasn’t shy about voicing his thoughts about the product class in general:

My personal opinion is there is no such thing as a gaming phone that has been introduced in the market by anybody. We look at gaming devices as being primarily designed for gamers, not for other capabilities with gaming gimmicks and added features to try and fool gamers.

Certainly, there are quite a few OEMs out there (Xiaomi, Razer, ZTE, Asus) that would vehemently disagree with Azor about there being no such thing as a gaming smartphone, but it is plain to see what the XPS chief is trying to point out. Alienware laptops and desktops are built from the ground up for gamers; it’s not as if the manufacturer is also trying to market its gaming products as business devices by adding superfluous features. But, for those crying out for Alienware to pool its engineers' gaming know-how into creating a gaming phone, not all hope is lost. Azor did add this comment:

If and when we find an opportunity to legitimately design and define a designed-for-gamers phone, then maybe we will pursue that.