: Razer is also the name of Canadian TV channel. This article is about the computer peripherals manufacturer named thus. It is also the form in which razors are occasionally misspelled.

Razer is a privately held computer peripherals manufacturer specialising in high-end products specifically catered to gamers. It has seen a recent resurgence after a short period of dormancy with new products released within 2004 and 2005. The Razer brand is now currently being marketed under Razer USA Ltd and this article refers to the brand and not the various entities under which it was held.

=History=

Razer was founded in 1998 by a team of engineers and marketeers in order to develop and market a high end computer gaming mouse, called the Boomslang. It was claimed as the world s first 1000dpi mouse (as opposed to 200 or 400dpi offerings) and purported to give greater accuracy and higher scores to gamers who used it.

One of the novel innovations of Razer was the sponsorship of gamers, which directly contributed to the pro-gamer phenomenon that is currently emerging. Jonathan fatal1ty Wendell was amongst the first wave of sponsored gamers and is still currently active in the pro-gaming arena (i.e. he plays computer games for a living, earning money through product endorsements and prizes from winning gaming/E-sports events).

Unfortunately, Razer stumbled around 2000 in the dot-com bust, although not strictly a dot-com was relegated to the economic trash heap, and new product development stalled. Razer was stuck with a mechanical mouse (albeit in new 1400 and 2100 dpi flavors) where competitors such as Microsoft and Logitech were turning out optical mouse offerings.

(Sources: Razer official website, opinions - ESReality forum, Razer Blueprints - razer communtiy)

=Current=

In 2004, Razer made a comeback with a 1000dpi optical mouse called the Viper, where the highest dpi setting then available on optical mice was 800dpi. This was quickly followed by the 1600dpi optical mouse which they dubbed they labelled the Diamondback (establishing a formula of naming its mice after venomous snakes). The Diamond back has garnered several critical awards including GameSpot s [http://hardware.gamespot.com/Story-ST-x-1369-x-x-x&body_pagenum=3 2004 Hardware Accessory of the Year award].

In July 2005 a 2000dpi laser mouse called the Copperhead which is to launch in late August 2005. The Copperhead will set many precedents by being the first 2000dpi mouse, the first mouse with onboard flash memory (32kb for storing configurations in the mouse itself) and the first laser mouse designed for gaming (the only previous lazer mouse being a Logitech wireless mouse).

==Razer Pro|Solutions==

Razer is also launching products aimed at the professional and precision users market, where higher dpi is claimed to be useful in navigating very large screens with speed and accuracy.

The Pro V1.6 appears to be a rebadged Diamondback and was launched at Macworld 2005.

==Sponsorships==

Razer currently sponsors several electronic sports Clan (online gaming)clans, notably:

SK Gaming - E-Sports clan with teams involved in multiple games.

[http://www.eyeballers.com Eyeballers] - A multi-game clan specialising in first-person shooters

[http://www.girlzdestruct.com girlz 0f destruction] - An all girl Quake and Unreal Tournament clan

=External links=