HPDBC Chapter 379 Alienware Laptop Launched
Chapter 379 Alienware Laptop Launched
Jinan soon welcomed its first snowfall of winter. Ling Yun sat at his desk, wearing a dark blue sweater. On the desk sat a demo unit of an Alienware laptop, which he had been using for a month and found to be quite satisfactory.
The phone rang, and he glanced at the caller ID; it was Alex.
Alex's voice came through the receiver, hoarse and husky, as if he'd been up all night. He said, "Ling, our laptops are online, and the sales results are in."
"We went live at 3 a.m. We launched on the official website, Amazon, and our own online store. All three channels were open simultaneously. The first batch of 500 units went on sale at midnight and sold out by 7 a.m. We added another 500 units, and they were gone by 9 a.m. The entire 1,000 units sold out in six hours."
Lingyun asked him, "Who's buying? Do you have a user profile?"
Alex said, "I don't know. The orders come from all over the United States, from New York, California, Texas, Chicago, and also from Europe, from the UK, Germany, France, and Japan. Some are individual orders, buying one at a time. Some are corporate purchases, buying ten or twenty at a time. One hedge fund company ordered fifty at once, saying they were for their traders. He said traders need laptops with long battery life; the old ones would run out of power after three hours, but this one can run for twelve hours without needing to be charged."
Lingyun asked him, "What about the price? Have users given any feedback?"
Alex said, "It's $1,999, the same price as Apple's PowerBook. It's $300-$400 more expensive than Dell and HP business laptops, but users don't mind the price. The reviews are out; yours should have been released around midnight. Wired gave it a 9 out of 10, saying it's the best business laptop they've ever seen. Ars Technica's review said that the Starry Sky system delivers an x86 experience on ARM with only one-third the power consumption. CNET says it has a 12-hour battery life, a revolutionary experience. Several tech bloggers have also posted video reviews, which have all gotten a lot of views."
Lingyun asked him, "How's the heat dissipation? How's the heat generation?"
Alex said, "There are no issues with heat dissipation. Although there's no fan, it doesn't affect cooling at all. Plus, without a fan, the laptop doesn't have that annoying buzzing sound, and user satisfaction is very high. After running continuously for twelve hours, the back temperature is around 40 degrees Celsius. It's fine to use on my lap. One blogger said that he used to use a ThinkPad, and it got unbearably hot on his lap. After using this for a day, my lap didn't feel anything."
Lingyun asked him, "What other feedback have users given? What problems have they encountered?"
Alex said, "The main feedback issue is software. Adobe suites don't run; Photoshop, Premiere, AutoCAD, and SolidWorks don't support ARM. Some users bought it only to find they couldn't use their professional software and returned it. The return rate is about 5%. Most of these are designers and engineers; ordinary users have no problem. Typing, browsing the internet, checking emails, making PPTs, and writing code—it can do it all. The battery life is really good. One user said he left at 8 a.m. and returned at 8 p.m. without charging and still had 20% left. He said he used to have other laptops and had to find a power outlet by 3 p.m.."
Ling Yun stood up, walked to the window, leaned against the windowsill, picked up the phone, and said, "What about production capacity? Is it keeping up?"
Alex said, "We can keep up. Ma Baoguo has already opened three production lines, producing 500 units a day. Next month, we can reach 800 units. We have no shortage of parts; the batteries and casings are all from domestic suppliers, and the delivery time is stable. It's just that the screen, memory, and hard drive are still imported from Japan and South Korea, so we need to stock up in advance."
Lingyun said, "Let's get the volume up and running first. We'll figure out how to handle the memory and hard drive issues later."
After a few seconds, Alex said, "Ling, there's one more thing."
"A reporter asked me, since the Starry Sky system runs so well on ARM, have you considered licensing it to other hardware manufacturers? I said not at the moment. He asked if other manufacturers could use the Starry Sky system if they also wanted to make ARM laptops. I said that's Mr. Ling's business, I can't make that decision."
Ling Yun said, "Reply to him that the Star System is open source; anyone can use it as long as they obtain the necessary authorization."
Alex said, "Okay. I'll reply to him."
After hanging up the phone, Ling Yun returned to his desk and sat down. He turned on his computer, the screen lit up, and the browser homepage was CNET's technology channel.
The headline was a review of the Alienware laptop, with the title in bold: "Alienware ARM Laptop Review: 12-Hour Battery Life, Astral System Performs Better on ARM Than x86." He clicked on it; the article was long and included several photos. The laptop was on a table, the screen lit up, displaying the Astral System desktop. He scrolled down and saw the rating: 9.2.
He opened another page, an Ars Technica review. The title was "StarOS on ARM: The x86 Killer We've Been Waiting For?" The article began with a paragraph that essentially said StarOS's performance on the ARM architecture exceeded everyone's expectations, with faster boot times than x86, much lower power consumption, and a daily user experience that was in no way inferior to Windows.
He leaned back in his chair and opened the Amazon page. The Alienware laptop page was still there, with a "Temporarily Out of Stock" sign next to it, and over a thousand reviews below, averaging 4.8 stars. He clicked on the reviews and read them one by one.
The first review was written by a user named David, and it's five stars. He said he bought three: one for himself and two for his colleagues. He explained that he works in finance and is often out and about; his old laptops wouldn't last more than three hours before he had to find a power outlet at lunchtime. This one, however, has been running for two days and still has power when he gets home. He said it's the best laptop he's ever used, bar none.
The second review was written by a user named Sarah, giving it four stars. She said she liked the laptop's battery life and weight; it's very light and easy to carry. However, she couldn't use Photoshop and had to install an alternative with far fewer features. She said it would be great if Adobe released an ARM version. She gave it four stars, deducting one star because of the software.
The third review was written by a user named Michael, and he gave it five stars. He said he's a programmer who usually uses Vim to write code, compiling and running it on a server. His laptop only requires a terminal and a browser. He said this laptop perfectly meets his needs: long battery life, a comfortable keyboard, and a non-glaring screen. He said he's been waiting for a laptop like this for ten years.
The fourth comment was written by a user named Emily, who also mentioned Samsung. She said she's an architect and usually uses AutoCAD and Revit. These two software programs wouldn't run. She bought it, tried it, couldn't install them, and returned it. She gave Samsung the credit not because the laptop was bad, but because she couldn't use it.
The fifth comment was written by a user named James, and it received five stars. He said he's a student who mainly writes papers, surfs the internet, and watches videos. This laptop is sufficient for him; the battery lasts a day, so he doesn't need to carry a charger to the library. He mentioned that his classmates all use MacBooks, and when they see his laptop, they come over and ask what brand it is, saying they've never seen it before. He said Alienware. His classmate asked, "Isn't Alienware a gaming laptop company?" He explained that this is a new model, based on the ARM architecture. His classmate didn't understand, and he didn't explain further.
Lingyun read through the comments and found that the feedback was mostly positive; people seemed to approve of Alienware's new office laptop. The main issue now was production capacity, so Lingyun decided to visit an electronics factory soon to check on the production situation.