[Update: Official statement] Razer Phone 3 may have been canceled as phone division’s future is in question

Ben Schoon | Feb 19 2019 - 10:08 am PT

It’s been just a couple of years since Razer entered the mobile phone market, but it seems things might be coming to a close. According to a report and also an official statement from the company, the Razer Phone 3 may have been canceled, and the phone division as a whole might not be alive much longer.

A tip received by Droid-Life recently suggested that Razer had canceled development on the Razer Phone 3 as well as laying off the majority of its staff associated with the phone division. In investigating that tip, it was discovered that several engineers who worked on the original Razer Phone and the Razer Phone 2 left the company this month.

According to the tipster, Razer is keeping enough employees around to work on future software updates, such as the Android Pie update announced today.

Update: Razer has provided another official statement specifically explaining the situation regarding its mobile division. Apparently, some staff members were let go and others were reassigned. The company says it will “continue to invest,” but from the sound of it, things aren’t looking bright.

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. We are working on new exciting mobile projects and will share the news when we are ready. The Razer Phone 2 will continue to be on sale and we are committed to supporting it with the latest updates and features.

Razer actually confirmed in an official statement that with the company’s “realignment,” 30 employees had been cut and some projects had been shut down. There was no specific mention about the phone division, but the question that brought this statement out was specifically asking about those employees.

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.

It’s unclear at the moment what lies ahead for Razer in the phone industry, but it wouldn’t be surprising if the company saw it wasn’t getting enough traction in the market and decided to pull out. As great as both Razer Phones to date have been, they’re a niche sell, and pretty much everyone is struggling at this point. The phone business is tough.