
Afghanistan’s only PC manufacturer - shawndumas
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/04/ars-visits-afghanistans-only-pc-manufacturer/
======
justin_vanw
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.

~~~
netcan
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
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.

------
yohui
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.

~~~
LeifCarrotson
> BlueSonic presents the BluePanel &ndash; 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
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.

------
2bluesc
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...](http://www.anandtech.com/show/7182/90-minutes-with-the-clevo-w740su-
featuring-iris-pro-hd-5200)

[2]
[https://system76.com/static/images/support/guides/galu1-quic...](https://system76.com/static/images/support/guides/galu1-quickstart.pdf)

------
miguelrochefort
Their stuff doesn't look half bad. I'm surprised.

EDIT: It's Canadian-based.

~~~
LeifCarrotson
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.

