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Early adopters, hardcore techies may love repairability but they will buy whatever comes out next. What counts is the majority of buyers after these techies.

Early adopters, hardcore techies may love repairability but they will buy whatever comes out next. What counts is the majority of buyers after these techies. It's similar the early buyers of a Tesla who could say "ahh it will be so eco I don't have to buy another car for 10 years" and, 3 years later they buy themselves the new model as they would have normally do with a combustion engine car. Consumers first. The key point is that repairability is important and is a marketing ploy but isn't a real fundamental issue for wealthy techies. They will just get another laptop in a year or so. It's the non techies that are important, not us! It's the majority and long tail, not the early adopters that this laptop should be for!

mjhagen 5y ago
It's techies that advice their non-techie friends and family though.
TeMPOraL 5y ago
> It's the majority and long tail, not the early adopters that this laptop should be for! Why? This is the way we end up having only mass-market, lowest-common-denominator products. Not fighting to get quality tooling for our niche is one of the important reasons we don't get any.
kelnos 5y ago
As a "wealthy techie", I have the opposite view: as much as it's not difficult to me to buy the things I need or want, I hate the amount of waste generated by replacing things before they need to be replaced. I currently have a 2018 Dell XPS13. I really want a Framework laptop, but my current laptop works well enough (I wish it had more RAM and a larger SSD, though, which is a big part of why I want a new one), and it's hard to justify that waste, even if I can sell or give my old laptop away to someone else who needs it.
- BoorishBears 5y ago
  > I currently have a 2018 Dell XPS13 So you're not a techie in the sense it's being used. Techie can mean someone who's an expert on technology, but when it comes to talking about techies as consumers, it's about people who always chase the latest and greatest. It's tautological, you're not a techie in this context if you don't consume new tech.
- nunb 5y ago
  The 51nb "Thinkpads" achieve three goals you may find useful: reuse, upgrade & repairability. In effect, you are recycling while upgrading! In addition to repurposing some of the old electronics & the entire chassis, they have massive performance, complete repairability & upgradability, a max of 64GB RAM & 3 storage disks, all in a smallish (but thick) Thinkpad form-factor. Oh, and they come with two power supply options (USB-C and barrel jack) and have functional VGA ports and ethernet jacks. Batteries are a bit of a problem though.
iSnow 5y ago
The real problem with the Framework laptop is that the ordinary consumer will not assemble their own laptop or upgrade it later. They will just go and buy a $500 cheap laptop with a 15" screen and if it breaks, buy a new generation.

mjhagen 5y ago

It's techies that advice their non-techie friends and family though.

TeMPOraL 5y ago

> It's the majority and long tail, not the early adopters that this laptop should be for! Why? This is the way we end up having only mass-market, lowest-common-denominator products. Not fighting to get quality tooling for our niche is one of the important reasons we don't get any.

kelnos 5y ago

As a "wealthy techie", I have the opposite view: as much as it's not difficult to me to buy the things I need or want, I hate the amount of waste generated by replacing things before they need to be replaced. I currently have a 2018 Dell XPS13. I really want a Framework laptop, but my current laptop works well enough (I wish it had more RAM and a larger SSD, though, which is a big part of why I want a new one), and it's hard to justify that waste, even if I can sell or give my old laptop away to someone else who needs it.

BoorishBears 5y ago
> I currently have a 2018 Dell XPS13 So you're not a techie in the sense it's being used. Techie can mean someone who's an expert on technology, but when it comes to talking about techies as consumers, it's about people who always chase the latest and greatest. It's tautological, you're not a techie in this context if you don't consume new tech.
nunb 5y ago
The 51nb "Thinkpads" achieve three goals you may find useful: reuse, upgrade & repairability. In effect, you are recycling while upgrading! In addition to repurposing some of the old electronics & the entire chassis, they have massive performance, complete repairability & upgradability, a max of 64GB RAM & 3 storage disks, all in a smallish (but thick) Thinkpad form-factor. Oh, and they come with two power supply options (USB-C and barrel jack) and have functional VGA ports and ethernet jacks. Batteries are a bit of a problem though.

iSnow 5y ago

The real problem with the Framework laptop is that the ordinary consumer will not assemble their own laptop or upgrade it later. They will just go and buy a $500 cheap laptop with a 15" screen and if it breaks, buy a new generation.