Razer’s CEO brags that his company spent $380,000 designing the Blade’s USB ports, but in reality the not-so-exotic connector can be had for much less.
Earlier this month Razer’s CEO, Min Liang Tan, got his company some press by bragging to Fast Company that $380,000 was spent designing the Razer Blade’s green USB ports.
The “hands-on on pretty much everything” type of leader justified the expense to Fast Company by saying the port had to be “perfect” and made from scratch because it was “ pretty much an entire product by itself.”
But how much would it really cost to make a customized USB connector? Min’s claim that Razer spent $380,000 on making the “perfect” port seemed a little far fetched, the kind of statement designed to drive media wins through the compliant hardware blogosphere. Since the “specific acid green that [Razer] really liked” is the same color used by Razer on other parts, making a green USB connector would be as simple as including that specific CMYK hexcode in the order placed with the factory.
But how much would it really cost to make a customized USB connector? Min’s claim that Razer spent $380,000 on making the “perfect” port seemed a little far fetched, the kind of statement designed to drive media wins through the compliant hardware blogosphere. Since the “specific acid green that [Razer] really liked” is the same color used by Razer on other parts, making a green USB connector would be as simple as including that specific CMYK hexcode in the order placed with the factory.
The joy of having a private companyTo get a sense of how much it would actually cost to design a green USB port for a laptop we reached out to TJ Huang, co-founder of gadget case maker Digirit *and one of HWTrek’s experts that specializes in linking people up with OEM and ODM companies in Taiwan.
“It’s easy to do to change only the color,” Huang told VR-Zone. “If you only change the color, it won’t cost much money.”
Huang reached out to his connections in Taiwan’s supply chain that would be capable of designing and producing a green USB port and came up with two figures (in US dollars): $35,000 or $15,000. The $35,000 figure is for a reputable and well known connector supplier; the $15,000 figure is for a lesser known supplier from China with “so-so” quality.
To put things into perspective, even designing a standard USB connector to fit into a notebook has a cost attached to it since while there’s some standardization in notebook chassis size every one is different. A figure Huang used to give perspective is if it costs $1 for a standard connector, one with customized color would be $2.
So if the actual cost of designing a custom USB port is a fraction of the $380,000 cited by Min, what exactly was the rest of the money spent on? Or was this just a marketing stunt?
“It’s easy to do to change only the color,” Huang told VR-Zone. “If you only change the color, it won’t cost much money.”
Huang reached out to his connections in Taiwan’s supply chain that would be capable of designing and producing a green USB port and came up with two figures (in US dollars): $35,000 or $15,000. The $35,000 figure is for a reputable and well known connector supplier; the $15,000 figure is for a lesser known supplier from China with “so-so” quality.
To put things into perspective, even designing a standard USB connector to fit into a notebook has a cost attached to it since while there’s some standardization in notebook chassis size every one is different. A figure Huang used to give perspective is if it costs $1 for a standard connector, one with customized color would be $2.
So if the actual cost of designing a custom USB port is a fraction of the $380,000 cited by Min, what exactly was the rest of the money spent on? Or was this just a marketing stunt?
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