Framework won’t be just a laptop company anymore

Before they do that, I kind of wish that they'd be a laptop company that makes laptops that have 100 Wh batteries.

It occurs to me: might Framework’s team need to focus on a few lingering laptop issues before moving on to new territory?

Yeah. Like, if you have only 60 employees, you should have a lot of room for growth in the laptop market. Does it make sense to start spreading out resources? I'd rather see them become successful in the laptop market than become a flash in the pan.

The next product should be a sustainable, not publicly traded company. If investors take majority ownership and IPO, Framework's perceived mission will evaporate quickly in the inevitable search for ever growing profits. I sincerely hope Nirav and Co actually give a shit about the repairable product and retain majority shares. If not 👉👌...

I'd love to see them make other devices. But I want the company to actually be viable and entrenched before they spread themselves even more thinly.

They're already having trouble releasing firmware and driver updates in a timely manner, especially for Windows users who can't rely on driver updates packaged in the kernel.

But man I can think of a few cool Framework devices that I'd be into buying...

Cool. How about a repairable phone with a headphone jack? I'll be a day one buyer.

Surely they are aiming for a repairable and modular smartphone eventually. That's going to be super hard to do. My guess is their next form factor will be a tablet.

Arm machines that are repairable to compete with Apple would be very cool in my opinion. Maybe team up with an integrator like sys76. Could be very cool. I’d personally line up to buy.

I'd kill for a 2-in-1 framework with a detachable keep board and pen

As long as the company itself doesn't become greedy and doesn't change it's mission & vision i always support it

i just cant escape the headphone jack jihadists even in this thread

I'm waiting for them to offer a chassis to convert their laptop parts into USFF PCs. Reusing old parts after an upgrade is pretty attractive. I think they mentioned this a while back, I've been waiting for it to happen.

I'd also like to see a thunderbolt or oculink GPU bay part that would enable eGPU use with their machines.

And if we're wishlisting top facing speakers would be 🤌

Tomorrow, it wants to be a consumer electronics company, period.

Patel won’t say — I only get the barest hints, no matter how many different ways I ask.

I want one with an e-ink display. That way I can swap out the e-ink display when I need to for a proper display. That wouldn't work on a normal laptop but should work for their uniquely modular design.

Please let it be a smart TV.

I'm curious to see where they go next. A lot of modern consumer electronics have repairability and upgradeability problems, but I also wouldn't expect they'd be able to crack into the phone market as easily as the laptop market, so presumably there's some more niche target they have.

I'm sure a Framework phone is at least an idea for them to produce. Definitely an extremely difficult challenge. It would be nice if it allowed for removable RAM, but it could be hard due to SODIMM being relatively large or due to RAM being put on SOCs. I imagine it shouldn't be too much to ask for removable storage at least, given how small NVME drives can get. Upgradable SOC/motherboard is a must.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

That’s one of the biggest reasons it just raised another $18 million in funding — it wants to expand beyond the laptop into “additional product categories.”

Framework CEO Nirav Patel tells me that has always been the plan and that the company originally had other viable ideas beyond laptops, too.

Framework might choose an “equally difficult” category or might instead try something “a bit smaller and simpler to execute, streamlined now that we have all this infrastructure.”

(Patel recently suggested to Jason Carman that Framework might adapt its marketing to reach more everyday audiences.)

The company’s $9 million seed round paid for the original 13-inch laptop design, which has carried on for three generations of components.

Today, Framework has about 50 employees, and it plans to expand to 60 before the end of the year, with “a bit of additional team growth” in 2025.

The original article contains 653 words, the summary contains 144 words. Saved 78%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

It would be nice if they partnered with fairphone.

cool - but if their product lines are modular and they try to break out of their niche market. whats to stop someone with a lot more capital from snapping them up (Dell, Lenovo, etc)?

I have a MacBook for work. Can't wait to have a Framework as a personal computer.

Do they offer touchscreens for the laptops yet? I’ve been waiting for that to get one, I won’t get a laptop without it.

This nonsense company is too expensive for regular people