New Rosewill 60% Aluminum Mechanical Keyboard

[daerid]

I don't see why rebadging something is necessarily bad. A large company like Newegg/Rosewill will likely buy many more units and give the product much more exposure than if a small shop were selling it itself. In turn, the price is lower for essentially the same product. Besides, if they wanted to copy the design they probably could have done that without having a special unit made for them. It's behind glass, so who would know if they cheaped out.

In the case of the TeX keyboard, possibly. But with the mouse? Razer is by no means a "small shop", and the Ouroboros is a distinctive Razer design. They had to know that people would pick up on that, yet still made the decision to display a knock-off with their branding on it. I have no idea what they were thinking.

[DrinkTea]

Well, how do you know they didn't purchase a demo unit from Razer either. Also, they may be known to enthusiasts, but they likely lack the broad appeal that a Newegg house brand would bring. Before you accuse me of being a Newegg shill, I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here and think of things in the most rational economic terms possible.
As for ripping off a design, I would argue that's a dicier topic, most of the time. That mouse does have a pretty distinctive design so it's much more blatant in this case. However, for it to be wrong, I think you'd have to claim that it existing is somehow damaging to the original designers, either directly in terms of sales or in terms of their perceived value. And maybe you could, but I don't have any numbers in front of me. Again, just playing devil's advocate because economics is interesting!

[daerid]

Well, how do you know they didn't purchase a demo unit from Razer either. Also, they may be known to enthusiasts, but they likely lack the broad appeal that a Newegg house brand would bring. Before you accuse me of being a Newegg shill, I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here and think of things in the most rational economic terms possible.
As for ripping off a design, I would argue that's a dicier topic, most of the time. That mouse does have a pretty distinctive design so it's much more blatant in this case. However, for it to be wrong, I think you'd have to claim that it existing is somehow damaging to the original designers, either directly in terms of sales or in terms of their perceived value. And maybe you could, but I don't have any numbers in front of me. Again, just playing devil's advocate because economics is interesting!

Because there are enough differences between the Rosewill unit and the Ouroboros that it's more than likely a knock-off. There is a slight possibility that they got their hands on an early Razer Ouroboros prototype and slapped their logo on it, but that seems pretty far-fetched. And I would hazard that Razer are a bigger brand than Rosewill, and not just with enthusiasts. As an example, many of my friends who are definitely not in the enthusiast category know about and own Razer products, but have no idea who Rosewill are. I doubt that many of the people who shop at Newegg even know that Rosewill is a "house" brand. As far as they're concerned, it's just another brand that Newegg sells, nothing special about it.

You make a good argument, though in this particular case I'd have to say that there probably isn't a judge (in the US at least) who wouldn't side with Razer if they went to court over it. The design is too distinctive (as you point out).

However, if the Ouroboros is actually a Razer branded OEM mouse, then all bets are off (but most of Razer products don't follow that path, so I doubt it).

[DrinkTea]

Well, how do you know they didn't purchase a demo unit from Razer either. Also, they may be known to enthusiasts, but they likely lack the broad appeal that a Newegg house brand would bring. Before you accuse me of being a Newegg shill, I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here and think of things in the most rational economic terms possible.
As for ripping off a design, I would argue that's a dicier topic, most of the time. That mouse does have a pretty distinctive design so it's much more blatant in this case. However, for it to be wrong, I think you'd have to claim that it existing is somehow damaging to the original designers, either directly in terms of sales or in terms of their perceived value. And maybe you could, but I don't have any numbers in front of me. Again, just playing devil's advocate because economics is interesting!

Because there are enough differences between the Rosewill unit and the Ouroboros that it's more than likely a knock-off. There is a slight possibility that they got their hands on an early Razer Ouroboros prototype and slapped their logo on it, but that seems pretty far-fetched. And I would hazard that Razer are a bigger brand than Rosewill, and not just with enthusiasts. As an example, many of my friends who are definitely not in the enthusiast category know about and own Razer products, but have no idea who Rosewill are. I doubt that many of the people who shop at Newegg even know that Rosewill is a "house" brand. As far as they're concerned, it's just another brand that Newegg sells, nothing special about it.

You make a good argument, though in this particular case I'd have to say that there probably isn't a judge (in the US at least) who wouldn't side with Razer if they went to court over it. The design is too distinctive (as you point out).

However, if the Ouroboros is actually a Razer branded OEM mouse, then all bets are off (but most of Razer products don't follow that path, so I doubt it).

Well, I don't like to speculate on who knows what about what brands. But sampling from people you know is certainly not a simple random sample. That aside, I think it would depend on if Razer had design patents. And even if they did, I think they need to show damages.
Either way my main point is that it's important to put aside visceral, emotional reactions to things like design ripoffs and profiteering. Who knows, maybe the Magnetbox and Sorny brands of the world do serve an economic purpose. But as always, show me the data.

[keymaster]

From the Computex Facebook page...

This is one of the few new keyboards coming from Rosewill. a 60% Unit, MAC, Windows compatible keyboard with detacheable USB cable, and most notably, and aluminium facia. The keyboard will come with anodized finishing, similar to a Macbook Pro. The keyboard can be placed ON TOP of a laptop keyboard. We are requesting to drop Unix key layout support in favor of a standard layout. The keyboard will be the CHEAPEST 60% keyboard you can get with a aluminium casing. The tentative price is RM 4xx. A casing ALONE from Vortex is over 100USD. Sorry about your wallet there!

[alaricljs]

So $130+ ?

[keymaster]

So $130+ ?

Since the Tex Beetle is currently selling for over $140 at MechanicalKeyboards, I would imagine that the Rosewill 60% will be priced somewhere between $120-$130.

[DrinkTea]

Since they're quoting prices for Malaysia, you'd need to know if the goods are priced the same in real terms there and in the US or Europe or wherever. And this is often not the case.

[keymaster]

Since they're quoting prices for Malaysia, you'd need to know if the goods are priced the same in real terms there and in the US or Europe or wherever. And this is often not the case.

That is very true, but knowing Rosewill and their products, I can assume that this product (much like most of their products) will be priced cheaper than its competitors.

[xmagusx]

And this year's Hyundai looks like last year's Lexus. Success is mimicked, and that's not a bad thing. Razer was first to market with that look, sure, but it's not like Razer invented the mouse or even brought anything unique to the market. I fail to see why this should grant them some sort of magic shield from competition.

If the Rosewill product is the better value and the company isn't using their profits to enslave Iceland (or whatever), buy it.