Ming-Liang Tang, co-founder of peripherals giant Razer, has admitted that the company has been doing a 'terrible job' with its recent planned product launches, following a continued delay for its most recent Razer Blade gaming laptops.
Although Razer made its name building and selling gaming-centric keyboards and mice, the company has in recent years been diversifying with a range of own-brand computing devices including laptops and tablets. In March this year, it started taking pre-orders for the latest generation of its Razer Blade ultra-slim gaming laptop, boasting a high-resolution display and improved internals over its predecessor, with a view to shipping in April - a date the company missed.
'We’ve been doing a terrible job anticipating and meeting demand for our products,' Tang admitted in an update to his Facebook page late last week. 'Each time we announce a new product – we end up having some of our customers wait for months before they get their pre-orders. A good example is the latest Razer Blade – we announced it in March ’14 and there are many who pre-ordered on the day of launch who haven’t received their units even till today. I wish I could claim that it’s a one off situation and we’ll do better the next time – but I’ll be honest, we’ve been screwing up on anticipating demand for a long time – for the past couple of years, every time we launch a new product, demand just far outstrips the supply.'
'We suck at this. I suck at this,' Tang confessed. 'I apologise to all of you who have had to wait for ages each time we launch a new product. And this isn’t the first time I’m apologising for this, I’m afraid, but I do intend to change the system so that we can launch products better here at Razer and have more happy customers who can get their hands on our products.'
Tang claims that the company has tried multiple tactics to avoid delays - ranging from quadrupling of manufacturing capacity through to limited launches in selected geographic regions - with little success. 'Even now, Blade is only limited to the US but still we can't meet the demand - we've pushed back launch dates and we still end up disappointing our customers, and in many cases we end up pissing them off.'
Tang's admission comes as the company plans to launch yet another new product, details of which have yet to be released. Missing from his post, however, is any detail of what his company is looking to try next in order to manage customer expectations and repair its reputation in the face of constantly-missed launch deadlines.
Although Razer made its name building and selling gaming-centric keyboards and mice, the company has in recent years been diversifying with a range of own-brand computing devices including laptops and tablets. In March this year, it started taking pre-orders for the latest generation of its Razer Blade ultra-slim gaming laptop, boasting a high-resolution display and improved internals over its predecessor, with a view to shipping in April - a date the company missed.
'We’ve been doing a terrible job anticipating and meeting demand for our products,' Tang admitted in an update to his Facebook page late last week. 'Each time we announce a new product – we end up having some of our customers wait for months before they get their pre-orders. A good example is the latest Razer Blade – we announced it in March ’14 and there are many who pre-ordered on the day of launch who haven’t received their units even till today. I wish I could claim that it’s a one off situation and we’ll do better the next time – but I’ll be honest, we’ve been screwing up on anticipating demand for a long time – for the past couple of years, every time we launch a new product, demand just far outstrips the supply.'
'We suck at this. I suck at this,' Tang confessed. 'I apologise to all of you who have had to wait for ages each time we launch a new product. And this isn’t the first time I’m apologising for this, I’m afraid, but I do intend to change the system so that we can launch products better here at Razer and have more happy customers who can get their hands on our products.'
Tang claims that the company has tried multiple tactics to avoid delays - ranging from quadrupling of manufacturing capacity through to limited launches in selected geographic regions - with little success. 'Even now, Blade is only limited to the US but still we can't meet the demand - we've pushed back launch dates and we still end up disappointing our customers, and in many cases we end up pissing them off.'
Tang's admission comes as the company plans to launch yet another new product, details of which have yet to be released. Missing from his post, however, is any detail of what his company is looking to try next in order to manage customer expectations and repair its reputation in the face of constantly-missed launch deadlines.
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