A reference in several products, mainly in the peripherals market, Razer wants to take bigger steps in the Brazilian market. In an interview with TecMundo, Razer’s senior vice president of global sales and marketing, Bob Ohweiler, revealed about the possibility of bringing the Razer Edge portable console to Brazil, the difficulties with the Blade line and even how the Razer Phone helped renewing the smartphone industry.
With a growing number of gamers using smartphones to play, the idea of portable consoles has gained momentum again in recent years. When asked whether the Brazilian public could expect to see the Razer Edge on the national market, Ohweiler says that the company wants to understand and explore the dynamics of this product before thinking about any type of expansion.
“There is no reason why we cannot bring a product like this to Brazil. We are new to this market. These products tend to have a different type of support [consoles portáteis]and need a different level of care. That’s why it’s only available in the USA”, explains Bob. Launched in 2023, the Razer Edge is a laptop with a Snapdragon chip capable of running games available on Android.
Was Razer Phone a failure?
Launched in 2017, the first Razer Phone was one of the first gaming smartphones to make a splash on the market, but was discontinued years later in its third version. Despite being considered a failure by many, the executive and Razer understand it differently.
Razer’s senior vice president of sales points out that the smartphone was a kind of watershed, since before its launch the devices did not have specifications to suit the gaming public. “Today, cell phone manufacturers, due to the Razer Phone, are working with screens with higher refresh rates. Companies pay more attention to cooling and energy use. These are the things that the Razer Phone really innovated”, comments Bob Ohweiler.
Razer Phone had strong specifications for games, such as 8 GB of RAM.Source: Razer
No Blade line in Brazil
Despite its success in the world of peripherals, Razer is well known for its Blade notebooks abroad. However, these gaming laptops never officially arrived in Brazil, and as much as the company is keeping an eye on opportunities, this move seems somewhat unlikely, according to Bob.
As the executive explains, these products have a short life cycle, especially due to the constant launches of chips from companies such as AMD, Nvidia and Intel. Thus, notebooks become obsolete very quickly, like in about a year, and the only option left is to discontinue them.
The Razer Blade line focuses on products with premium design and specifications.Source: Razer
“Someone who spends a lot of dollars in the United States on a notebook expects a certain level of quality in service, and repairs when necessary. So, the volume we would need to have in Brazil would have to be too large for us to have adequate repair and customer support facilities”, he emphasizes. Bob Ohweiler also points out that the only reason not to bring Blade notebooks to the country is “purely economic”.
The senior vice president also explained that many products and accessories, such as clothing, are produced for Razer stores around the world. If some of these products, such as licensed Fortnite items, make sense for the team operating in Brazil, then these goods will arrive here.
Razer will maintain its focus on premium products
With the arrival of more companies in the hardware and peripherals sector in Brazil, internal competition has increased exponentially. However, Bob says that Razer will maintain its position of offering quality products to consumers — even if most of them are quite expensive.
The executive highlights the launch of top-of-the-line products, such as the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro keyboard, considered the company’s most advanced. On the other hand, the green brand is also known for selling cheaper items, mainly headsets, which lead the Brazilian market share and motivated Bob’s arrival in Brazil.
The Kraken headset family is one of the company’s most important.Source: Razer
“We just kept playing our game and focused on winning […] Our main focus now is that we want any gamer in Brazil to be able to walk to their favorite store, see the Razer symbol and be able to interact, touch and feel the product”, concludes Bob Ohweiler, senior vice president of global sales and marketing at Razer .
Source: https://www.tecmundo.com.br/voxel/289772-razer-edge-brasil-executivo-comenta-portatil-lancamentos-no-mercado-nacional.htm
