Dell revives XPS as component costs surge; consumer business head on brand equity, pricing strategy and India push

Dell Technologies is bringing back one of its most recognisable consumer PC brands, XPS, after briefly moving away from the branding as part of a portfolio simplification exercise. The company believes the strength of the XPS name among consumers, creators and enthusiasts was too significant to ignore.

Speaking to The Economic Times, Chris Cowger, Senior Vice President, Global Consumer & eCommerce, Dell Technologies, said the company’s decision to retire XPS temporarily was aimed at simplifying its portfolio, but customer feedback eventually pushed Dell to reverse course.

“We had a lot of different brands in our portfolio Inspiron, XPS, Latitude, Vostro and others. Some carried a lot of brand weight and others maybe not so much. The desire was to make things as simple as possible for customers,” Cowger said.


However, Dell found that while it had stopped using the XPS branding, it had not stopped building products that represented the XPS philosophy premium materials, thin and light designs, high-quality displays and machines targeted at creators.

“The challenge was that we constantly had to translate what Dell Premium meant. When we said it was XPS, people immediately understood what those products represented,” he added.

The company also noticed strong reactions from its enthusiast community, including online forums such as Reddit, where XPS has developed a loyal following over the years.

“We were surprised at the amount of backlash. We listened to feedback from analysts, press, customers and partners, and eventually realised that XPS was the right name for these products,” Cowger said.

Premium brands, wider access

Dell is also attempting a similar strategy with its gaming portfolio. The company is looking to make premium brands such as XPS and Alienware accessible to a broader audience while protecting the features that define them.

Cowger said the challenge is identifying which elements of a premium product cannot be compromised. “For XPS, the non-negotiables are things like chassis quality, machined aluminium, ultra-thin and light design, and screen quality. Those are attributes we cannot sacrifice,” he said.

For Alienware, the priorities are different. While premium materials remain important, performance remains the core identity of the gaming brand.

“Alienware is much more about performance levels graphics performance, CPU performance, memory, storage, display quality and, ultimately, frame rates,” Cowger said.

Dell believes it can reduce entry pricing by making selective trade-offs without damaging the core proposition of the brands.

“You can take an existing system and cut corners everywhere to reduce costs quickly. The risk is damaging what people associate with the brand. We need to protect the attributes that make these products special,” he added.

Managing rising component costs

The PC industry is currently dealing with higher component costs, particularly around memory and other key hardware components. Several technology companies have started adjusting pricing globally as supply pressures continue.

Cowger said Dell is managing the situation through a portfolio-based approach rather than a single pricing strategy.

“There are certain areas where passing costs along is easier because the market is less elastic. In other areas, it is much more challenging. We look at product lines, routes to market and countries differently,” he said.

He added that the current environment is unlike anything he has experienced in his three decades in the technology industry.

“I have been in this business for 30 years, and I have never seen anything like this in terms of either the magnitude of impact or the projected duration,” Cowger said.

Rebuilding Dell’s consumer identity

While Dell remains one of the strongest enterprise PC players globally, Cowger acknowledged that the company’s consumer business has not received the same level of focus over the years.

He said Dell’s consumer products play an important role in shaping overall brand perception.

“When people think about Dell as a brand, a lot of that identity comes from consumer products. It may not always be the biggest financial contributor, but it has a huge identity contribution,” he said.

The company is now looking to strengthen its consumer business and bring it closer to the scale and visibility of its enterprise operations.

“The mission over the past two years has been to grow the scale, scope and financial contribution of this business. Not to rival enterprise, but to become a stronger complement,” Cowger said.

India’s omnichannel opportunity

Dell is also expanding its consumer distribution strategy in India as buying behaviour shifts across online marketplaces, direct channels and organised retail.

Traditionally, Dell focused heavily on its own online store and select large-format retailers. However, Cowger said broader accessibility has become a priority.

“People buy in different ways. India has a huge e-commerce ecosystem with players like Amazon and Flipkart, strong direct-to-consumer online demand, and growing organised retail through players like Vijay Sales, Croma and Reliance,” he said.

The company is now focusing on an omnichannel approach, ensuring customers can access Dell products regardless of where they prefer to shop.

“You should never have to go looking for Dell. If you prefer Dell, if you know the XPS name, that product should be accessible through any route to market,” Cowger said.

The strategy also includes emerging channels such as quick commerce.

Cowger said India has often been an early market for new retail models, with quick commerce now influencing strategies globally.

“One thing I love about this market is that many product and route-to-market trends start here and then move elsewhere. We saw quick commerce in India before many other markets,” he said.

New consumer lineup

Dell has also refreshed its consumer portfolio in India with new launches across premium, mainstream and gaming categories. The company’s new lineup includes:

Dell XPS 13 starting at ₹79,990, available through Dellstore.com, Dell Exclusive Stores and Reliance Digital.

Dell 14S starting at ₹1,19,990, available through Dellstore.com, Dell Exclusive Stores, large-format retail and multi-brand outlets.

Dell 16S starting at ₹2,29,990, available through Dellstore.com and Dell Exclusive Stores.

Alienware 15 with Intel Core processors starting at ₹1,28,990, available through Dellstore.com, Dell Exclusive Stores and select retail outlets.

With the return of XPS and a wider push across online and offline channels, Dell is betting that brand recall, premium positioning and easier availability can help strengthen its consumer PC business in a market increasingly driven by performance, AI-ready devices and gaming.