Nirav Patel has spent his life seeing the guts to consumer electronics.As a child, to cacharrera with the computers he found in his house, a place where the broken was not replaced: he was fixed."In that ecosystem the hardware was still very open and you could play with almost everything," he recalls.Then he arrived in Apple and from there he went to the founding team of Oculus, and the world was found upside down."In the course of a few decades, the devices have become completely closed and inaccessible to the end user," he laments.
The result of this is a civilization accustomed to the latest technologies being obsolete after a sad year.A market where it is reasonable that jeans last much more than a computer.“It is demential that products so expensive and so advanced are so disposable;That we spend 2000 dollars on a computer and that the deterioration of a small part, such as a battery or a key leaves them unusable for how expensive it is to repair them ”, sentence.The paradox was the Framework culture broth, the company with which Patel intends to return access to the guts of our devices and, hopefully, take out the industry from the model in which it is stuck.
Eighteen months after the starting of the project, the company was ready for the launch of its first product: a repairable and configurable portable computer whose first units are reaching the consumers of the United States and Canada.“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 expanding in 2022 ″.Your promise is that we do not need to be engineers or have previous knowledge to improve, or replace any part of the machine."In fact, it's very easy," he says.A screwdriver is enough.
How did you decide to take the step?
It was clear that the problem was not going to be solved alone and that the only way to fix it was to demonstrate that it is possible to build a company that follows a different more friendly model with the consumer and the environment.And I knew I had the skills and connections necessary to achieve it.
On paper, how much would a framework notebook have to last?
Our goal is that they last at least twice what consumers could manage to buy another computer with similar characteristics.But the crucial thing is that the teams will not only be functional during that period of time, they will also be pleasant.It is not a product that begins to degrade after working perfectly for two years, and that the user has to suffer for another couple more years.If something starts working worse, it is a worn battery, a broken screen or an insufficient storage space, it can be fixed with a simple module change.In addition, if a user needs a different port, you can get it without the need for external adapters, it is enough to change the expansion cards.The machine is designed to be very easy to open and everything is labeled with QR codes where the user finds step by step instructions.
On the outside, your notebooks resemble any commercial model, but what happens inside is very different.How difficult to reinvent that structure?
It is not a total reinvention.We have been able to take advantage of a lot of knowledge in design and architecture.Rather it is a priorities review: for us the important thing was to ensure that we had a very fine and high -performance laptop, but within the limits of doing it totally accessible to someone who has never seen a computer inside.
Let's put my keyboard.How long and money would it cost me to repair it?
For this piece we have two ways.One is to replace the entire top - 99 dollars - that would cost a couple of minutes or less.Another option is to replace only the keyboard —39 dollars - which is somewhat more complicated, and it can take half an hour.The user can choose, buy the spare on our website and have it at home in a couple of days.It is more efficient for the consumer and for us: they do not have to send us the team and wait for the repair center to review it, and we must not worry about information security.
What if something more lethal happens?If a spilled coffee damages different components?Does reparation cease to be profitable?
If the damage is too much, it may happen that makes more sense to buy a new one.But even in that situation it would be possible to save taking advantage of some components.For example, memory and storage expansion cards would probably be intact.
Regarding the price, how is the comparison with other market equipment?
We have tried to keep the prices close to what the user would find buying a similar equipment.The cheaper preconfigured notebook costs $ 999 and the most expensive cost 2000.Apart, if a user, for example, does not want Windows, can configure a cheaper version in the version "Do it yourself".
On the stage you describe, buyers continue to depend on you to get spare parts.Does this fate of monopoly enter your plans?
Nope.We are trying to build an ecosystem that goes beyond Framework.We have already published in open the designs of the expansion cards and we have some community developments and small businesses starting to develop their own.That is great, because consumers do not have to depend on us.And we want to also happen with other components.
Are you worried that these manufacturers end up throwing them out of the market?
Nope especialmente.For us the objective is to grow that ecosystem and that our store serves, over time, as a market for those third manufacturers and vendors.
Will we see and repair the most device guts?
Yes.The laptop is only the beginning because it was the most obvious and possibly the category that the model we have most needed.But we think this applies to any category of consumer electronics.We all have a drawer full of broken devices with which we cannot do anything.
Imagine Apple or Samsung following a similar model?
Nopes gustaría.But I don't count on it.Your models are too focused on that replacement cycle.
They would kill the framework model.What can kill Framework?
The biggest challenge for us is the problem that everyone is facing: silicon shortage and problems in the supply chain.For now we have been able to overcome it, but nobody knows exactly what will happen next year and does not seem that this crisis will disappear.For now we are selling laptops faster than we manufacture them.