5 ms·

Afghanistan’s only PC manufacturer

55 points by shawndumas 11y ago

yohui 11y ago
Their website: http://bluesonic.af/en http://bluesonic.af/en and YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/bluesoniccomputers https://www.youtube.com/user/bluesoniccomputers Their all-in-one desktops have integrated batteries. Useful when the power grid is unreliable, I guess.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- Scoundreller 11y ago
  Plus a lot more efficient so keep your UPS on the DC side rather than doing a senseless DC->AC->DC conversion.
- LeifCarrotson 11y ago
  > BlueSonic presents the BluePanel – the All in One Desktop in one portable panel, easy to carry, light and portable with multi touch screen. That's not the machine I think of when I see the word "desktop".
  - moftz 11y ago
    It's too big to be considered a tablet and its definitely not a laptop. It is definitely meant to go on a desk. I can't imagine trying to use a small LCD TV in my lap the same way I can use a tablet or laptop.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
miguelrochefort 11y ago
Their stuff doesn't look half bad. I'm surprised. EDIT: It's Canadian-based.
- LeifCarrotson 11y ago
  You don't build the laptops or phones they are selling with a few technicians in a workshop. They're assembled to some definition of "49%" - where all the major design and component fabrication is done - and then glued together in Afghanistan.
justin_vanw 11y ago
This isn't some achievement, this is a company trying to avoid the crazy ~40% protectionist import tariffs. The subtext here is that Afghanistan is hobbled by tariffs that make necessary economic goods so insanely expensive it's possible to compete with Dell and Samsung and Lenovo in your garage.
- yuhong 11y ago
  I read http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-03-14/business/9303191808_1_pc-price-war-popular-machines-gateway http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-03-14/business/93031... . I wonder what would happen if they increased prices in response to backlogs.
- netcan 11y ago
  I wonder if this is useful, for a country with as little economic prosperity as Afghanistan. (A) A country like that cannot easily tax income or even consumption to raise taxes the way modern economies can. (B) Ricardo's model of relative advantage might break down at the edges when a country is competitive n so few fronts. (C) Maybe it's helpful to have openings like this that are easy, but might lead to more sophisticated industry later on. I'm not convinced the same rules apply to countries with a 50+X difference in productivity.
  - mseebach 11y ago
    A: A country as unproperous as Afghanistan should probably try to focus more on raising wealth, not taxes. Making it harder for an already poor population to buy computers isn't it. B: A poor country's advantage is really low cost. Punitive tariffs erase that advantage. Then again, so does high security costs. C: That's a big might. In the meantime it makes it much harder for the much more numerous industries (with much higher value add) that depend on computers to take off.
2bluesc 11y ago
Unsurprisingly, it appears that the "BizBook 1"[0] is a re-badged Taiwanese Clevo W740SU[1] which was also sold as the System76 Galago Ultra Pro[2] And why is it so hard to find pictures of old Clevo laptops on vendor sites? Not even support pages. :-/ [0] http://bluesonic.af/en/product/bizbook-1-af-40su-gallery/ http://bluesonic.af/en/product/bizbook-1-af-40su-gallery/ [1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/7182/90-minutes-with-the-clevo-w740su-featuring-iris-pro-hd-5200 http://www.anandtech.com/show/7182/90-minutes-with-the-clevo... [2] https://system76.com/static/images/support/guides/galu1-quickstart.pdf https://system76.com/static/images/support/guides/galu1-quic...

55 points by shawndumas 11y ago

yohui 11y ago

Their website: http://bluesonic.af/en http://bluesonic.af/en and YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/bluesoniccomputers https://www.youtube.com/user/bluesoniccomputers Their all-in-one desktops have integrated batteries. Useful when the power grid is unreliable, I guess.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
Scoundreller 11y ago
Plus a lot more efficient so keep your UPS on the DC side rather than doing a senseless DC->AC->DC conversion.
LeifCarrotson 11y ago
> BlueSonic presents the BluePanel – the All in One Desktop in one portable panel, easy to carry, light and portable with multi touch screen. That's not the machine I think of when I see the word "desktop".
- moftz 11y ago
  It's too big to be considered a tablet and its definitely not a laptop. It is definitely meant to go on a desk. I can't imagine trying to use a small LCD TV in my lap the same way I can use a tablet or laptop.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

miguelrochefort 11y ago

Their stuff doesn't look half bad. I'm surprised. EDIT: It's Canadian-based.

LeifCarrotson 11y ago
You don't build the laptops or phones they are selling with a few technicians in a workshop. They're assembled to some definition of "49%" - where all the major design and component fabrication is done - and then glued together in Afghanistan.

justin_vanw 11y ago

This isn't some achievement, this is a company trying to avoid the crazy ~40% protectionist import tariffs. The subtext here is that Afghanistan is hobbled by tariffs that make necessary economic goods so insanely expensive it's possible to compete with Dell and Samsung and Lenovo in your garage.

yuhong 11y ago
I read http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-03-14/business/9303191808_1_pc-price-war-popular-machines-gateway http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-03-14/business/93031... . I wonder what would happen if they increased prices in response to backlogs.
netcan 11y ago
I wonder if this is useful, for a country with as little economic prosperity as Afghanistan. (A) A country like that cannot easily tax income or even consumption to raise taxes the way modern economies can. (B) Ricardo's model of relative advantage might break down at the edges when a country is competitive n so few fronts. (C) Maybe it's helpful to have openings like this that are easy, but might lead to more sophisticated industry later on. I'm not convinced the same rules apply to countries with a 50+X difference in productivity.
- mseebach 11y ago
  A: A country as unproperous as Afghanistan should probably try to focus more on raising wealth, not taxes. Making it harder for an already poor population to buy computers isn't it. B: A poor country's advantage is really low cost. Punitive tariffs erase that advantage. Then again, so does high security costs. C: That's a big might. In the meantime it makes it much harder for the much more numerous industries (with much higher value add) that depend on computers to take off.

2bluesc 11y ago

Unsurprisingly, it appears that the "BizBook 1"[0] is a re-badged Taiwanese Clevo W740SU[1] which was also sold as the System76 Galago Ultra Pro[2] And why is it so hard to find pictures of old Clevo laptops on vendor sites? Not even support pages. :-/ [0] http://bluesonic.af/en/product/bizbook-1-af-40su-gallery/ http://bluesonic.af/en/product/bizbook-1-af-40su-gallery/ [1] http://www.anandtech.com/show/7182/90-minutes-with-the-clevo-w740su-featuring-iris-pro-hd-5200 http://www.anandtech.com/show/7182/90-minutes-with-the-clevo... [2] https://system76.com/static/images/support/guides/galu1-quickstart.pdf https://system76.com/static/images/support/guides/galu1-quic...