Scaling up Infrastructure

Scaling up Infrastructure

We continue to ramp up Framework Laptop production, and we are rapidly reaching a point where we’ll be able to ship out orders for most configurations in a few weeks instead of 1-2 months. Some units are currently even available for November shipment. With holidays coming up, we’ve gotten a lot of interest from folks who want to give a Framework Laptop as a gift. To make that easier, we’re introducing a holiday extension to the 30-day return window. For orders from November 10th to December 10th, we’ll extend the return date to January 10th, 2022.

With our supply improving, you may be wondering when you can order a laptop if you’re outside of the US and Canada. We selected and are bringing up our worldwide warehousing and fulfillment partner, which is one very key part of the equation, but it takes quite a lot more than that to enable a complete experience in each country. Picking Germany as one example, we need German language keyboards, a Type F power cable, in-box paperwork and labeling in German, localization for the Framework website, support documentation, and checkout flow, support for local payment methods, calculation of Euro prices and taxes, accounting support for German income, creation of legally sound Terms of Sale, Privacy, and Warranty policies for Germany, CE certifications, a local Authorized Representative to back up the certifications, determination of HS codes and tariffs, an Importer of Record to be able to deliver duty paid, German-language in-time-zone customer support, reverse logistics and RMA support for returns and repairs, region-specific sourcing of off the shelf memory and storage, trial builds of German laptops prior to production, and back-end ERP infrastructure to tie all of this together. That sounds like a lot, but it’s actually a drastically simplified summary. Supply and logistics crunches slowed down parts of it, but we are moving forward on all fronts. We’ll open pre-ordering in the next few countries before the end of the year for shipment in early 2022. We’ll share the exact month of shipment at the time we open pre-orders.

Interesting news and projects around the Framework Laptop continue to land just about every day, and we’d like to share a round-up of some of them. Elevated Systems developed a cyberdeck-like keyboard PC that re-purposes the Mainboard into something awesome. Freethink did a fantastically well-produced video on the importance of our mission. The robots at dbrand released custom vinyl skins for the Framework Laptop. The community continues to prototype interesting new Expansion Cards, like scroll wheels, magnetic charging, and even an LTE radio. And finally, we made the cover of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2021!

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Gotta let that sink in for a bit. Seeing a lot of threads saying “why can’t you ship to x” and knowing this was the reason, it’s not as simple as it seems.

Being in Canada, I can sympathize, but the prep work is not inconsiderable.

:flushed: :flushed: :flushed: :flushed: :flushed: :exploding_head:

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Really looking forward to this shipping to Germany. My dad’s laptop is finally breaking down after no idea how many years and the charge port just doesn’t want to get soldered on a 3rd time. Something easier to repair will definitely be welcome and right up his alley. Thank you for all your work!

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I’m really hoping the UK is among the next set of countries so I can order one for my parents. Though it wouldn’t surprise me if it’s not, since I suspect Brexit means the UK needs separate handling to some extent.

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The difference with the EU though is: if you can ship to Germany, you can ship to all EEA states (which includes some non-EU states). The situation is more akin to shipping between states in the USA. If you can ship to Texas, it will be some extremely rare situation where you cannot ship to Montana.

(And no, different languages does not matter for this. It is one market - the “Single Market”, the holy grail of the EU and its whole reason for existence. Valve is able to sell just fine to Slovenia in spite of offering zero support for that member state’s primary language and having no legal entity in the Slovenia. Similarly, other laptop vendors like Tuxedo can sell to the Netherlands without any problems in spite of only ever supporting English and German.)

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The only thing we need is an EU local warehouse so we know how much we pay (because of vat) and we have reasonable shipping. Could be anywhere in the EU and who cares about the language, probably 99% who would buy a framework notebook today speaks enough english.
Seems like it’s really overcomplicated. I’m fairly sure we can already buy things that are not localized, or at an absolute minimum to put a checkmark next to the compliance items.
Anyway. Moving on, guess it’ll have to be something else for now, maybe in 5 years for the next machine it’s worth to check back…

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As they used Germany as the example here, that gives me hope we can expect pre-orders over here within 2021. I’d love it if I could order mine before Christmas :blush:

Like the previous posts in this thread, for me language would not be an issue. However I also completely understand and appreciate Frameworks approach of doing this right, with proper language support and everything.

Just give me the option to order a US Keyboard layout with Shipping to Germany, please :pray: !

Anyhow, looking forward to the launch here :partying_face:

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@Leon_Matthes I completely agree with you that for most people who want a Framework Laptop it won’t be a problem if support is only in english. Since most of the people who want one, are (probably) more on the technical side and so speak at least a bit of english so that they can understand the manual/instructions.

Anyways, greetings from the Netherlands

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I will be ordering with a US keyboard no matter what. And I can just pickup an USB PD supply somewhere else. No need for translated documentation or websites or anything.
So as others say, I just need a EU warehouse, with shipping and customs/VAT handled, and I will place an order immediately.

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Is there any way we can assist/help with the processes? I for one am based in Germany. I work in Logistics/Port Industry/Research and have done contracts/legal work, websites, translations and quite a bit more.

Maybe the community with all the people from outside of the current shipping places can contribute and support the expansion or at least lower the cost for it?

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@Newgefarmer Appears that they have started pre-orders for germany yesterday. Would still be interesting if we can suggest edits for translations. Also your question is a good one for countries other than France, Germany and UK. I myself speak German, Dutch and english so it would be nice if we could suggest (better) translations.

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There are posts here suggesting different translation corrections.

Send a message @FrameworkBee to start.

@Max_Blaauw Thanks for letting me know! I am super excited now!

And thank you @Edward_Gray for the recommandation.

@Edward_Gray would be nice if it was like a GitHub repo where we can commit something to. Or via one of those services. Saw one once but can’t recall what it’s called. But thanks for letting me know.

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Crowdin and Transifex are pretty popular.

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Esben_Haabendal totally same thoughts but for Japan.