Razer Inc.

Razer Inc.

Type	Private
Industry	Computer industry Computer hardware Consumer electronics Application software
Founded	1998
Founders	Min-Liang Tan Robert Krakoff Matthew Thompson
Headquarters	San Diego, California, United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Robert "Razerguy" Krakoff (Chairman) Min-Liang Tan (CEO)
Products	Gaming laptops, Mice, Keyboards, Gamepads, Headsets, Mousepads, Watches, Software
Number of employees	400 (2015)
Subsidiaries	Ouya (Software) THX
Website	www.razerzone.com

Razer Inc. (stylized as RΛZΞR) is an American company founded by Min-Liang Tan, and Robert Krakoff and headquartered in Irvine, California, which specializes in products marketed specifically to gamers. Razer is dedicated to the creation and development of products mainly focused on PC gaming such as gaming laptops, gaming tablet computer, various PC gaming peripherals, wearables and accessories. The Razer brand is currently being marketed under Razer USA Ltd.

History

Razer was founded in 1998 by a team of marketers and engineers to develop and market a high end computer gaming mouse, the Boomslang, targeted to computer gamers.

At Consumer Electronics Show 2011, Razer unveiled the Razer Switchblade, a handheld gaming device prototype.^[1]

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.^[2]

In May 2013, Razer unveiled the 14-inch Razer Blade and 17-inch Razer Blade Pro gaming laptops with 4th-generation Intel Haswell processors. The Razer Blade 14-inch portable gaming laptop was dubbed the "world's thinnest gaming laptop" which weighed just 4.1 lbs., while the 17-inch screen Razer Blade Pro featured the built-in 'Switchblade' LCD display.^[3]

At CES 2014, Razer unveiled Project Christine, a modular gaming PC. Each of the branches on the PC is a discrete component—a CPU, a GPU, a hard drive, memory—that simply plugs into the central backbone. Once slotted in, Project Christine automatically syncs the newly added module 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.^[4]

At Consumer Electronics Show 2016, Razer has been selected for People's Choice Winner for Razer Blade Stealth Ultrabook.The company won last year for the Razer Forge TV, and this year, it takes home the prize for the Razer Blade Stealth Ultrabook, a super-slim gaming laptop.^[5]

In October 2016, Razer purchased THX according to THX CEO Ty Ahmad-Taylor.^[6]

Products

The Razer Naga Hex

Razer's products are generally targeted at gamers. Razer's products include gaming laptops, gaming tablets and PC peripherals including 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.^[7] The Blade stealth was announced alongside the Razer Core.^[8]
• 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 (also known as Razer Edge Pro) 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.^[9] 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 and though it features Razer's customizable RGB lighting, it does not have the Chroma name in it. 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.^[10][11] 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.^[12] It requires Android 4.3 (or higher) device with Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth 4.0 or higher) capability ^[13]

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.^[14]
• 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.

Based on information on Engadget, Razer's products have always been aimed towards gamers.^[15]

Team Razer

Razer has partnered with many professional eSports teams and players, who are collectively known as Team Razer.

Teams

• Team SlayerS
• Evil Geniuses
• Team Liquid
• Team Dignitas
• Counter Logic Gaming
• Mousesports
• CJ Entus
• KT Rolster
• Team Titan
• Mastermind e-Sports Club
• paiN Gaming
• Hanoi Full Luois
• Luminosity Gaming
• Unicorns of Love
• Estrell

Players

• Lim "BoxeR" Yo-hwan
• Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel
• Jonathan
• Ricardo Botello
• Saadath Hussain
• Lee "JaeDong" Jae-Dong
• Lee "NaDa" Yoon Yeol
• Jang "Moon" Jae Ho
• Stephen "Snoopeh" Ellis
• Henrik "Froggen" Hansen
• Andy "Reginald" Dinh
• Alexei "Cypher" Yanushevsky
• Li "Sky" Xiao Feng
• Ken "SephirothKen" Hoang
• Kevin "PPMD" Nanney
• Adam "Armada" Lindgren
• Juan "Hungrybox" Debiedma
• Yusuke "EG Momochi" Momochi
• Gabriel 'FalleN' Toledo
• Nordan "Rain" Shat, A.K.A Air Nordan
• Lee "Infiltration" Seon-woo (since November 16, 2015)
• Kun Xian Ho
• Ai "Fuudo" Keita

See also

• Agilent Technologies — manufacturer of some of Razer's mouse sensors until its spinoff of Avago
• Avago Technologies — manufacturer of some of Razer's mouse sensors until it left the mouse sensor business and licensed its mouse sensor technology to PixArt Imaging
• Keyboard technology
• Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR)

References

1. "CES People's Voice Award". CNET. January 8, 2011. Archived from the original on January 19, 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-20.
2. McWhertor, Michael. "Razer Edge gaming tablet is Windows 8 laptop, console and 'Steam Box' in one". Polygon. Retrieved 2013-01-08.
3. Portnoy, Sean. with %5b%5bIntel%5d%5d %5b%5bIntel Haswell|Haswell%5d%5d processors-7000016154 "Razer launches 14-inch Blade, 17-inch Blade Pro gaming notebooks with Intel Haswell processors" Check |url= value (help). zdnet. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
4. Razer Purchases Ouya's Software Business - Geek Inspector, 27 July 2015
5. http://www.engadget.com/2016/01/08/presenting-the-best-of-ces-2016-winners/
6. A New Beginning for THX: Why I Sold My Company in My First Year - Medium, 17 October 2016
7. RAZER STEALTH BLADE AND NABU - CES 2016
8. Smith, Ryan. "Razer Core Thunderbolt 3 eGFX Chassis: $499/$399, AMD & NVIDIA, Shipping In April". Retrieved 2016-07-12.
9. "Razer - For Gamers. By Gamers. - Razer United States". Razer. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
10. "IGN Asia". IGN Asia. Retrieved 2015-09-06.
11. "Razer Nabu X Smartband".
12. Razer Nabu Watch is a dual screen smartwatch with year-long battery life CES 2016: Razer joins the smartwatch party and it's doing things a little differently
13. Razer Nabut Watch Master Online Guide.
14. pen-Source Virtual Reality (OSVR)
15. "Engadget | Technology News, Advice and Features". Engadget. Retrieved 2015-09-06.