Dell has decided to abandon their XPS, Inspiron, and Latitude brands, adopting a new naming convention that is perhaps more than just a little reminiscent of Apple. Introducing Dell’s Dell, Dell Pro, and Dell Pro Max.

Via Dell:

Unified brand and simplified choices make technology decisions easy

Buying a PC can be a complex experience, with multiple factors to consider – brands, models, form factors, performance, graphics, storage and materials. In fact, 74% of consumers walked away from technology purchases simply because they felt overwhelmed.3

Dell’s new branding puts the highly trusted Dell name front and center with three PC categories:

• Dell: Designed for play, school and work.
• Dell Pro: Designed for professional-grade productivity.
• Dell Pro Max: Designed for maximum performance.

The Dell and Dell Pro product lines extend to displays, accessories and services for a consistent customer experience across the entire client portfolio.

[For gamers, Alienware continues as a leading gaming brand that’s been serving PC gamers for nearly 30 years.]

When looking at Dell’s previous lineup, it can certainly be argued that it was needlessly complex, but that could be said of most computer hardware makers not designing things in California inside of a huge UFO. Thankfully, the Alienware brand lives on to provide fodder for Gamers Nexus videos.

And finally, for reference, here is the 1997 product matrix that inspired all of this: