I know a couple of months ago, you guys made a point that by the end of the year you wanted to start shipping to other regions…
it’s now the beginning of november, so is there some kind of roadmap/more specific point at which we can get the laptop in places like the UK? I desperately need a new laptop but I’ve been holding out to get a framework. I can’t wait for much longer now.
What about translations and multilingual support which is required to be able to be stocked in stores anywhere outside of the anglosphere? Is that in sight?
@Daniel_Gagnon Translations and multilingual support is not required to stock outside the anglosphere. You can sell fine in English throughout the European Union, for example. (Indeed, I have purchased a fair few things from Swedish companies, while living the the Netherlands, that only offer support and functionality in English. Not even their fellow swedes get native support, and that is fine.)
Further, I would suspect that it is a bit early to think about being stocked in stores “outside the anglosphere”, considering they are not stocking in stores anywhere. You order your Framework from Framework. I expect that to be exactly the same with the launch outside US and Canada.
Anyhow, localization of some papers you may or may not pack in a box is a super simple thing. But not required. There’s plenty things I have purchased here in the Netherlands that don’t have dutch paperwork included. Which is fine, considering I don’t speak dutch. 
I expect that at some point they intend to be stocked next to the Dells and Lenovos. I didn’t ask if they planned it for tomorrow but if it’s on the radar.
I doubt it. The direct to consumer model is pretty important for a product like this - I very much doubt it will be sold properly in stores, and the comparative lack of scale means Framework probably can’t afford to give the retailers the margin they want and stay relatively competitive.
Retailers don’t stock based on customers wants, they stock based on how much they get paid to stock an item…
A store’s margin is tiny. They make their money off extended warranties and service.
Though Framework is in a weird situation given that it is so repairable which makes the extended warranty worth even less, just replace whatever broke.
Depends on the store. Most stores margins are a lot bigger than you think - they rely on the warranties much less nowadays. The manufacturer is the one that pays for promotions - and pays to have their product in the store in the first place.
First, sorry for not doing a proper reply, this forum software is confusing me…
Anyway, I meant to reply to this:
I expect that at some point they intend to be stocked next to the Dells and Lenovos.
This is an interesting statement for a big reason: Dell grew big on the same model Framework is currently using: direct-to-consumer. To me, and maybe I am old, the whole concept of being able to see a Dell machine in a retail outlet is “new and weird”.
Specifically, they managed to make this work very well through being able to offer the consumer exactly the machine, with exactly the specs, that they wanted. You fill in exactly what you want, and they build it and ship it straight to you. This is very difficult to do in a retail setting, and to get anywhere close you quickly run into SKU hell as you need to have many variants of the same machine with different amounts of memory, storage, yadayada.
Now yes, with the Framework - just like Dells and basically all laptops sold in retail until relatively recently - you can “bring your own” components. But that does not work in retail. The vast majority of consumers who walk into a retail store or browse the walmart website don’t want to buy “parts”. They want to buy a computer that has what they want.
Localisation of documents and outsourcing a few customer support people is not a big deal. Not compared to the logistical nightmare that is scaling for a proper retail launch. And if you’re not going to scale it, why bother? It’s a lot of costs just to be sat in some corner of a store with a single machine no-one ends up actually noticing because they’re too busy with the brands they recognize.
Now, if all things go well, perhaps we’ll see a day when Framework is at the scale of already shipping tens of millions of units, and then those costs would probably be pretty easy to bear. Until then, I hope they don’t try. I want them to survive, as a company.
A few days ago a interview was made with Mr. Patel in the Spanish newspaper ‘El País’ where he said:
“We are building the infrastructure to reach Europe. Our goal is to open orders in some countries before the end of the year and continue to expand in 2022”
You can read the interview here
OK. I’m in NZ. I have imported a US built laptop direct from the US before. I have been delaying buying another from the same outfit because I would prefer a Framework if I can source it. Do I have any options?
Special keyboards are not required to ship to EU countries. In Poland we always used and we are still using an American keyboard (with proper enter) even though we don’t have letters like X, Q, and V in our alphabet and we have a ton of special characters. I’ve noticed a similar thing in Netherlands, but they don’t have as many special characters.
I don’t need a special keyboard, which is why my laptop is currently on the truck to be shipped. But the day it is available, I’m ordering that keyboard.
@Daniel_Gagnon What the man was saying is a bit different though.
Not about “need” or “good enough”. Take the case of the Netherlands, where I currently live. There does exist a “Dutch” keyboard layout standard. But the thing is that your average dutch person would be extremely confused by it. They will never have seen it before, wouldn’t know how to touch-type on it, and would generally wonder “WTF is this shit?”
Here in the netherlands, the US keyboard - including physical layout as far as return key etc - is king. It is what everyone uses, what everyone expects, and what is stocked in stores.
Basically, the exact same units that ship in the US would be what people want here. Anything other than those units would end up being a “ew wtf, I guess I’ll buy something else instead”.