In what looks to be a distinct head start in the smartwatch race,Razer today announced the Nabu would be the first smartband in the world to be fully integrated with Tencent’s messaging platform WeChat, which has over 400 million daily active users.
Aside from being China’s largest online messenger, WeChat made sense as a partner to Razer because of its progressiveness in terms of bridging the platform to the real world wherever possible, according to Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan.
“They’re really pushing the limits, so when we started working with them, we were pretty excited,” said Tan.
The Nabu smartband will be the first truly social wearable with the following functions: it will show all the notifications an iOS or android device would, all the metrics a fitness band would measure, and have Tinder-like capabilities that allow users to share information just by being within range or shaking hands.
In other words, it will do everything a smartwatch and fitness band does, with social capabilities on an open platform.
“Today we’ve got PC as a screen, the mobile as a screen, the living room screen, and the biggest challenge right now is: who’s going to own the screen on the wrist? This has been one of the most exciting avenues to really get a hold of the attention of the user,” said Tan.
If the Nabu becomes the biggest wearable in China, given Razer’s reach in the U.S. and in Europe, it could become the biggest wearable in the world, assuming it comes out on top of competitors like Apple AAPL +2.61%, Samsung and LG. The company hasn’t announced the official price yet, but expects to ship millions of units at under $100 each. It will be made available in China in Q4 2014.
“I don’t think it’s unassailable but I think it’s a massive, massive win,” said Tan. “In fact, we’re actually more concerned about capacity right now, as opposed to demand.”
The numbers already speak for themselves. When Razer opened up 500 slots for the beta program, 250,000 people signed up.
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