Tagline: Build it as if it were your own

Basic Info:

Alienware was founded in 1996 by avid gamers and spirited entrepreneurs Nelson Gonzalez, CEO, and Alex Aguila, COO and President – and manufactures high-performance desktop, notebook, media center, and professional systems. It has earned a reputation for its ‘unorthodox excellence’ and sells directly in United States, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
“According to employees, the Alienware name was chosen because of the founders’ fondness for the hit television series The X-Files, hence the theme to their products, with names such as Area-51, Hangar-18 m15x, and Aurora.” – Wikipedia.

In 2009, The M17x was introduced as the First Alienware/Dell branded system. Alienware now represents the premium performance space in Dell’s consumer family of products

Alienware misssion says its all – ” Empower the customer to create, work and play faster by innovating and building the most powerful computers in the world.”

• Funding: Acquired by Dell Corporation in March 2006 as a wholly-owned subsidiary
• Headquarters: 14591 SW 120 St, Miami, FL 33186-8638
• Additional Offices: Call center in Costa Rica, full facility European Branch in Ireland and a full facility Pacific Rim Branch in Australia.
• Employees: 700+ worldwide

What it does?

• Assembles third party components into desktops with custom enclosures for high-performance gaming
• Alienware products also support graphically intense applications such as video editing, simulation, and audio editing
• Alienware also offers for sale recertified laptops and computer peripherals, such as headsets, computer mice, monitors and keyboards.

Notable Alienware innovations

Alienware® Video Array Technology

• Exclusive Alienware® Full Tower Chassis
• Custom Metallic Colors
• AlienGUIse Desktop Theme Manager 4.0
• Alienware® Liquid Cooling Technology
• ALX High-Performance Systems
• User Replaceable Graphics in Notebooks
• Award-Winning System Integration
• Exclusive AlienIce™ Video Cooling System
• AlienAutopsy™ Automated Technical Support Request System
• Alien Factory Automated Operating System and Driver Installation Program
• Alien Adrenaline™ Video Performance Optimizer

Awards

• Maximum PC: Kick Ass Product Award
• PC Gamer: 16 Editor’s Choice Awards
• PC World: 2006 & 2005 World Class Award
• CNET’s “Best of CES” 2007 Gaming Category
• PC Magazine’s Reader’s Choice Award 2005
• INC 500: Named One of America’s Fastest Growing Private Companies
• Ernst and Young: Entrepreneur of the Year Award
• Florida Trend: 2005 Top 200 Private Companies
• Smart Computing: Customer Support Overall Grade ‘A’
• PC World: Top 15 Desktop PCs
• PC World: Stuff We Love Award
• CNET: Editors’ Choice Award
• ZDNET: Editors’ Choice Award
• Computer Shopper: Best Buy Awards
• Computer Shopper: Shoppers’ Choice Award
• Computer Games Editors’ Choice Award
• Computer Gaming World: Editors’ Choice Award
• Tech TV: Lab Pick Award
• Laptop Magazine: Hot Pick Award
• Reseller Ratings.com: Gold Customer Satisfaction Award
• Videomaker: Best Products 2004

Products:

Alienware is known for the following line of high performance products -

1. LapTop
   • Area-51 m15x
   • M17
   • M17 x
   
2. DeskTop
   • Aurora
   • Aurora Torchbearer Edition
   • Area-51 series
   • ALX X58

3. Desktop barebones

4. Gear Shop: accessories
5. Game downloads
6. Recertified systems

Management:

• Nelson Gonzalez – CEO
• Alex Aguila – COO & President
• Arthur Lewis – General Manager
• Frank Azor – EVP

Revenues: As of FY 2005, Alienware brought in upwards of $170 million USD in annual sales.
Website: www.alienware.com

Tagline: Enjoyment Matters

Basic Info: BenQ Corporation is a Taiwanese multi-national company providing networked digital lifestyle devices. The company is headquatered in Taipei and operates worldwide with five branch offices in Asia Pacific, China, Europe and the Americas. It employs more than 1,400 individuals in different industry verticals.

Products: BenQ offers unrivalled breadth and depth of products and integrating technologies including consumer electronics, computing and communication products. Its principal products include TFT LCD monitors and televisions, digital projectors, laptops, netbooks, All-in-One PCs, digital cameras, computer keyboards, mice, optical drives, optical discs and mobile phones.

Management: The key people in the management team include:

1. K.Y. Lee, Chairman
2. Jerry Wang, Vice Chairman
3. Conway Lee, CEO and President

Revenues:BenQ Corporation reported more than US$1.54 billion revenues in 2008.

Website: www.benq.com

Tagline: Take Life with You

Basic Info: RIM (Research In Motion) was founded in 1984. Its corporate headquarter is in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. It has major regional hubs in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific. It is listed on both the Nasdaq Stock Market and the Toronto Stock Exchange.

RIM is considered the market front-runner and thought leader for wireless solutions. The global communication industry is influenced to a great extent by the news coming out of RIM headquarters.

From the RIM’s official site – “Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, text messaging (SMS and MMS), Internet and intranet-based applications.

RIM technology also enables a broad array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services with wireless connectivity to data.”

RIM is synonymous with BlackBerry smartphones.

Products:

1. Blackberry Smartphones

2. BlackBerry solutions

3. SureType technology : SureType® keyboard technology combines phone and QWERTY layouts for quick and accurate dialing and typing.

4. BlackBerry Surepress touch screen: BlackBerry® SurePress™ touch screen technology represents a revolution in touch screen navigation and data entry.

Management:

1. Jim Balsillie – co CEO since 1992

2. Mike Lazaridis – President and Co-CEO

3. Don Morrison – COO

4. Larry Conlee – COO, Product development & marketing

5. Robin Binfait – Chief Information Officer

6. Brian Bidulka – Chief Accounting Officer

7. David Yach – Chief Technology Officer, Software

Revenues:

Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal 2009 was $3.46 billion, up 24.5% from $2.78 billion in the previous quarter and up 84% from $1.88 billion in the same quarter of last year.

Website: www.rim.net

Basic Info:

HTC Corp, (TAIEX: 2498) is synonymous with innovative and affordable mobile handsets.HTC was established in 1997 by Cher Wang, Chairwoman, HT Cho, Director of the Board & Chairman of HTC Foundation, and Peter Chou, President and CEO. In quick time, HTC has found a niche for itself in the mobile handset segment.

HTC’s products are are recognized for their innovative mobility, internet integration and wide spectrum of multi-media capabilities. It will be prudent to talk about some of the firsts which HTC is attributed for…

1. First color palm-size PC (1999)
2. First Microsoft Pocket PC (2000)
3. First Microsoft wireless Pocket PC (2002)
4. First Microsoft powered Smartphone (2002)
5. First Microsoft Smart Music Phone (2004)
6. Large 2.8″ TFT touch-screen LCD display
7. First Microsoft 3G Phone (2005)
8. First Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 Platform Phone (2005)
9. First tri-band UMTS 3G device on the Microsoft Windows Mobile platform (2006)
10. First Microsoft Windows 5.0 Smartphone (2006)
11. First Tri-band UMTS PDA
12. First intuitive touch screen to allow finger tip navigation (June 2007)

In the highly competitive smart phone market HTC has partnered with Microsoft and key mobile operators. Additional strategic partnerships include: Intel, Texas Instruments and Qualcomm; some of the largest mobile operators including Orange, 02, T-Mobile, Vodafone, Cingular, Verizon, Sprint and NTT DoCoMo.

HTC is focused towrads a continula engancement of its R&D capabilities – It has invested in a strong R&D team accounting for 25% of the total headcount and a world-class high-volume manufacturing facility, both based in Taiwan.

• Ranked No. 10 among global IT companies in the 2008 Info Tech 100
  (Business Week, May 2008)
• Ranked No. 2 in the annual ranking of Asia’s best-performing companies.
  (Business Week, September 2007)
• Ranked No. 4 in the annual ranking of Asia’s best-performing companies.
  (Business Week, September 2006)
• Ranked No. 3 among global IT companies in the 2006 Info Tech 100
  (Business Week, July 2006)
• HTC is described as “the hottest tech outfit you never heard of”
  (Business Week, April 2006)
• Ranked No. 31 in the first annual ranking of Asia’s best-performing publicly listed companies
  (Business Week, October 2005)
• Ranked No. 10 among the 2005 Best Reputable Benchmark Corporations
  (Common Wealth, October 2005)
• Named as one of the 29 Best Business Ideas in the World
  (Business 2.0, August 2005)
• HTC Chairperson Cher Wang selected as an Innovator in the 2005 Stars of Asia: 25 Leaders on the Forefront of Change
  (Business Week, July 2005)
• Ranked No. 11 among global IT companies in the 2005 Info Tech 100
  (Business Week, June 2005)
• A leading maker of PDAs, PDA phones, and Smartphones
  (Wall Street Journal, March 2005)
• HTC Smartphone named as the best choice for 2005
  (T3, September 2004)
• Strong R&D has made HTC a pioneer in the wireless industry
  (Far Eastern Economic Review, September 2004)
• The latest tech all-star from Taiwan
  (Business Week, March 2003)
• Best newly listed company in Taiwan for 2002
  (Asiamoney, January 2003)

Products: The range of HTC products has been segmented into 3 categories…

[A] Touch Products: The most popular and advanced product in this line-up are -

• HTC Hero

  
  

• HTC Magic

  

• HTC Touch Diamond2

  

• HTC Touch Cruise

  

• HTC MAX 4G

  

• HTC Touch HD

  

[B] Touch or Type Products : The most popular products in this line-up are -

• HTC Touch Pro2

  

• HTC Dream

  

• HTC Touch Dual

  

[C] Type products: In this segment, the most sold products are -

• HTC Snap

  

• HTC S740

  

• HTC S730

  

Management:

[1] Cher Wang, Chairwoman
[2] HT Cho, Director of the Board & Chairman of HTC Foundation
[3] Peter Chou, President and CEO

Revenues:

The total revenues for March 2009 were NT$ 12,376 million, up 12.03 % YoY. For the first quarter of 2009, total revenues reached NT$ 31,590 million with -3.40% year-on-year decline.

Website: www.htc.com