(Column) - A recent survey showed Dell, along with Bose and others, as one of the most trusted technology brands in the world. Over the years, the sheer charisma of Michael Dell has propelled his company to great heights. His business model has become the thesis of case studies that most, if not all, MBA students are required to read and understand.

The year 2006, however, could probably be the coming age of Dell. Both its PC and notebook businesses have seen heavy growth, but there is more…

Its recent acquisition of Alienware obviously gives Dell a bit of the ‘cool’ factor in the enthusiast market. What it also does is: give it bargaining power against Intel. Through Alienware, Dell can now retail AMD based products and it even has a premise: existing obligations.

This will probably even be a way to get out of the lawsuit AMD seems to be pursuing like holy war, which it might be.

Dell has pretty much perfected the art of delivering goods made to order. This expertise is just what niche products like Alienware need to get every last cent of profit out of their operations. With Alienware under its belt, Dell could begin to really cater to those looking for desktop gaming PC replacements.

But Dell could have something more than just Alienware up its sleeve. Intel couldn’t have awarded ATI any bigger accord than using ATI’s chipsets over its own. If Intel can trust it so much, then others can too. Wouldn’t it make sense for Dell, and indeed other Intel OEM vendors, to start using ATI chipsets as well? This will give them some pretty impressive cost advantages as ATI’s onboard graphics solution is (so far) better than NVIDIA’s, and they are really bundling in some remarkable features into their entry level boards.

How NVIDIA might react to this is of course a completely different story, especially since they gave Dell exclusivity for Quad SLI, but it would definitely be an interesting thing to watch out for.

Things have never really looked better for Dell, but treading the fine line with Intel and AMD could prove tricky. Regardless, with Dell (via Alienware) one of AMD’s new, indirect customers, things are looking prosperous for the world’s second largest chipmaker.