Alienware at the launch event for M14x and M18x, Alienware was open to the prospects of a branded tablet. During a question and answer session, division GM Frank Azor was careful not to commit to a design but was considering “all form factors” for the future. Alienware has so far been limited to PCs, while parent Dell has doen a few tablets.
Frank was more concrete action on adopting Thunderbolt. Alienware was “looking at it,” Azor said, after a call to match Apple in supporting the fast 10Gbps port. He cautioned that it was “very early” in the standard. Mini DisplayPort was already onboard some new machines, but not many Alienware users were using them so far.
Intel has said that Apple effectively had a head start through its collaboration and had access to development software that might not be available for most other companies until the start of 2012. Thunderbolt isn’t strictly an exclusive but needs an official Intel controller and true software support. .
