The mobile market is cutthroat at the best of times, especially for new players in the market. This is why it is not surprising to see Razer, known for their high-end gaming products, stepping back from the smartphone sector, at least for the time being.
The Razer Phone, Razer’s flagship foray into the world of mobile devices, apparently did not live up to company expectations, forcing Razer to not only cancel the Razer Phone 3 but also layoff a large portion of their dedicated mobile staff and hardware engineers. The cancellation of the latest iteration of the Razer phone was brought to light through a rumour, originally published by DroidLife.
In a statement on the matter, Razer outlined that: “In our mobile division, there were some staff members who were let go, and others who were reassigned to other new projects. We see great opportunities in the mobile gaming space that we created with the Razer Phone and will continue to invest in this category through a combination of hardware and software initiatives.”
With Samsung and Apple currently maintaining a large portion of the mobile space mind-share, it isn’t too surprising seeing a company, even as large Razer, struggle to keep up with the competition. In regards to the restructuring, Razer stated that they wish to: “centralize our resources to focus on key projects and improve our profitability.”
“Razer has made changes to realign our organization and strengthen our path to growth. We will centralize our resources to focus on key projects and improve our profitability. As part of the realignment, we shut down several projects and unfortunately had to part ways with about 30 employees (about 2% of our total workforce). Other employees of the affected projects will be moved to different parts of Razer to work on other key focus projects and initiatives which will continue to scale and hire.”
While the Razer Phone was one of the more advanced phones currently on the market, it is beyond what the majority of buyers look for from a mobile device. It is always disappointing to see layoffs, especially from a company like Razer, we at CGMagazine hope that everyone that is affected lands on their feet. The Razer Phone first launched in 2017, with the Razer Phone 2 hitting the market in 2018 at a price point of $899.99USD.
