A new startup Framework in San Francisco has been launched with the goal of repairing an ‘incredibly broken’ computer industry, as the CEO says. To combat this, Framework laptops are an ecosystem of pieces that come together in a computer that can constantly evolve.
The founder of Framework and one of the original Oculus employees tells Nirav Patel The edge that he wanted to tackle the big problems in the computer industry with his new company.
“As a consumer electronics company, your business model basically depends on producing steady tons of hardware and pushing it into channels, the market, and into the hands of the consumer, then drop it a little bit and let it exist out there,” Patel says. . “It encourages waste and inefficiency and ultimately environmental damage.”
To address this issue, Patel and his team created Framework: an ecosystem that is more than an individual product capable of interchanging and upgrading different parts over time to allow customization and easier repair. and of course the device can improve with changes in technology.
The basic framework comes with a 13.5-inch screen with a 2256 × 1504 resolution, a Full-HD 60 frame per second webcam, a 55 Wh battery and a 2.87 pound aluminum chassis. It is powered by 11th Gen Intel processors, up to 64 GB DDR4 memory and 4 TB (or more) Gen4 NVMe SSD storage.
All these parts, from the battery to the memory to the storage, can be swapped and changed over time, which is not particularly uncommon for desktop computers, but is becoming increasingly rare (or never existed before) in laptops. But Framework goes even further, offering the ability to swap out even external parts like ports, the keyboard, or even the screen and bezels (which are held in place by magnets).
The company also offers a ‘do-it-yourself’ kit of parts you select at purchase that allows customers to build their own laptops at home and install Windows 10 Home, 10 Pro or Linux. All those parts can of course also be replaced and upgraded at any time.
Framework will support these interchangeable parts through its own marketplace it will launch, which will serve as a hub for buying and selling parts. That marketplace will serve as a centralized point for consumers, but is open to outside sellers and resellers. Framework hopes that those who break a part or simply want to replace it with something else will know that it is easy to find what they are looking for in the Framework market, rather than scouring the internet for the best options.
The concept sounds great, but like that The edge points out: it has been done before and failed. Intel tried modular computers and failed, Compute Card’s Ghost Canyon NUC was unable to keep up to date with new parts, and Alienware’s Area-51m never got the future-proof parts it promised. Framework’s success depends solely on its ability to deliver on the promise of parts that customers actually want to upgrade to, and relying on third-party manufacturers to do that in the beginning is probably not enough.
Patel believes that the companies that have failed in this concept in the past did so because they were not committed to it, and since this is Framework’s entire business strategy, the outcome will be different.
Framework will begin taking preorders this spring and expect shipping to begin in the summer. No prices have been announced for the time being, but Patel says The edge expect it to be “on par with other well-reviewed notebooks”.
(via The Verge)