Razer Inc. (stylized as RΛZΞR), is a Singaporean-founded gaming company founded in San Diego by Min-Liang Tan and Robert Krakoff, with dual-headquarters in Singapore and San Francisco, and listed in Hong Kong since November 2017.
According to Razer's IPO Prospectus, Razer has "built the largest global gamer ecosystem of hardware software and services".
Razer is one of the world's most recognizable and best-performing gaming brands and is also considered one of the pioneers of esports as well as one of the biggest brands in esports today Its founder, Min-Liang Tan has been credited as the brain behind Razer, directing and overseeing the design and development of all of its products.
History
Razer began as a subsidiary of kärna LLC in 1998, created to develop and market a high-end computer gaming mouse, the Boomslang, targeted to computer gamers. Kärna ceased operations in 2000 due to financial issues. The current iteration of Razer was founded in 2005 by Min-Liang Tan, a Singaporean NUS graduate and the brain behind the company, and Robert Krakoff after they procured the rights to the Razer brand.
At Consumer Electronics Show 2011, Razer unveiled the Razer Switchblade, a handheld gaming device prototype.
At CES 2013, Razer unveiled its Razer Edge gaming tablet computer, which was previously known as Project Fiona. The tablet uses the Windows 8 operating system and is designed with gaming in mind.
In May 2013, Razer unveiled the 14-inch Razer Blade and 17-inch Razer Blade Pro gaming laptops with fourth-generation Intel Haswell processors. The Razer Blade 14-inch portable gaming laptop was dubbed the "world's thinnest gaming laptop" which weighed just 4.1Â lbs., while the 17-inch screen Razer Blade Pro featured the built-in 'Switchblade' LCD display.
At CES 2014, Razer unveiled Project Christine, a modular gaming PC. Each of the branches on the PC is a discrete componentâ€"a CPU, a GPU, a hard drive, memoryâ€"that simply plug into the central backbone. Once slotted in, Project Christine automatically syncs the newly added modules through PCI-Express (the same serial bus that discrete graphics cards and other components currently use).
In July 2015, Razer announced it was purchasing the software division of video-game company Ouya.
At Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2016, Razer has been selected for People's Choice Winner for Razer Blade Stealth Ultrabook. The company won the year before for the Razer Forge TV, and this year, it took home the prize for the Razer Blade Stealth Ultrabook, a super-slim gaming laptop.
In October 2016, Razer purchased THX according to THX CEO Ty Ahmad-Taylor.
At CES 2017, Razer revealed Project Valerie, a triple display laptop, and Project Ariana, a projector that is designed to project onto a room with automatic room scanning.
In January 2017, Razer bought manufacturer Nextbit, the startup behind the Robin smartphone.
In July 2017, Razer filed to go public through an IPO in Hong Kong. In October of the same year, it was confirmed that Razer plans to offer 1,063,600,000 shares at a range of $0.38-$0.51. On November 14, Razer was officially listed on Hong Kong stock exchange under the stock code 1337, a reference to leet speak commonly used by gamers. Razer's IPO closed 18% up on the first day of trading and was the 2nd most successful IPO of 2017 in Hong Kong.
In November 2017, Razer unveiled to critical acclaim, the Razer Phone, its first smartphone.
Products
Razer's products are generally targeted at gamers, and include gaming laptops, gaming tablets, and PC peripherals such as mice, audio devices, keyboards, mouse mats, and game pads. Razer has also released a VOIP software called Razer Comms. The Razer DeathAdder gaming mouse is the company's most popular product by sales numbers. Most Razer products are named after predatory or venomous animals, ranging from snakes (mice), insects (mouse mats), arachnids (keyboards) over marine creatures (audio) to felines (console peripherals), with the Razer Blade laptops and Razer Edge instead named after bladed objects.
Gaming equipment
- The Razer Blade series is a series of gaming laptops developed by Razer and include the 12.5-inch Razer Blade Stealth, the 14-inch Razer Blade, and the 17.3-inch Razer Blade Pro.
- The base Razer Blade Stealth model has a 2,560x1,440 pixel resolution touchscreen display, a Core i7 processor, 8GB of memory and 128GB of M.2 solid-state storage, this is upgradable to 3840 by 2160 with 512GB of M.2 solid-state storage. The Blade stealth was announced alongside the Razer Core. On June 14, 2017 Razer announced an updated version of the Blade Stealth, with a 13.3-inch QHD+ (3200x1800) screen. It also made the 7th generation Core i7 and 16gb of RAM standard on every 13.3-inch Blade Stealth.
- At DreamHack 2015, Razer and Lenovo announced a partnership to make a co-branded gaming desktop called the Lenovo Y900 Razer Edition gaming desktop.
- The Razer Edge is a gaming tablet PC developed by Razer specifically for games which run on Windows OS.
- In late 2014, Razer released their Chroma series of products. All Chroma series products have customizable RGB lighting. The first item in the series was the Blackwidow Chroma. The Blackwidow Chroma is a keyboard that has some new features added onto the original Blackwidow keyboard. After the first Chroma product was released, Razer has continued to add products to the series, such as the Razer DeathAdder Chroma. They have also added their RGB lighting onto another mouse they recently released called the Razer Mamba Chroma, which has RGB on the sides of the mouse with 14 different zones. A new version of the Razer Diamondback gaming mouse was also released and also features customizable RGB lighting.
Wearables
- The Razer Nabu is a smart band developed by Razer with features such as mobile app notifications, fitness tracking, and more which was first released in December, 2014. In 2015, Razer released a new version of the Razer Nabu called the Razer Nabu X.
- At the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show, Razer released the Nabu Watch, a dual-screen smartwatch: it integrates an always-on illuminated backlit display, that takes care of some pretty standard features as date and time, and a second OLED screen, which is activated by raising your wrist and is where you can explore its smart features. It requires Android 4.3 (or higher) device with Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth 4.0 or higher) capability
Other
- Razer is part of the Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) ecosystem with the OSVR Hacker Dev Kit, a virtual reality device and open-source software that enables programming for any variety of VR technology.
- The first gaming controller Razer released was the Razer Onza. It was released in late 2010, followed by the Razer Sabertooth which was released in 2013. In 2015, the Razer Wildcat gaming controller was announced, available for pre-order and was in stores by October 2015.
- The Razer Core was announced at CES 2016 alongside the Razer Blade Stealth. It was intended as a way to extend the functionality of the Blade Stealth by adding 4 additional USB-3 Type A ports, as well as a gigabit ethernet port, and the ability to connect a discrete graphics card to the blade. This was done using a Thunderbolt 3/USB 3.1 Type-C charging cable connecting the Core to the Blade Stealth. The 2016 Razer Blade also has support for the Razer Core.
- Razer has a partnerships with Nzxt and Lenovo to add Razer branding to NZXT computer cases, and Lenovo Pre-built desktops.
- Razer bought the THX sound brand
- Razer bought the smartphone start-up Nextbit, and later also designed their own phone, the Razer Phone
Based on information on Engadget, Razer's products have always been aimed towards gamers. The mice line of products is used by over 16% of professional gamers.
See also
- Keyboard technology
- Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR)
References
