@Alvin, The Mecer that closed shop was based at the EPZ if I recall, and their operations were taken over by their sister company Mecer East Africa which no longer assemble PCs but imports fully built units. They failed due to cost related issues and tax regime that favored importation. I think with withe zero rating of computer stuff, it might be even harder for such a venture to succeed. 2009/12/11 Calvin Omari <calvinebarongo@gmail.com>
The issues is production will not be cost effective why use 70k to produce a laptop that can be imported duty free at 50k with the same specs importation is cheaper than production in that case.
On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 9:35 AM, Alvin Jason Ochieng <ajochola@gmail.com>wrote:
Jared very true...though Mecer are still very much here!!!
On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 9:33 AM, Jared Koyier <jaredkoyier@gmail.com> wrote:
Probably lets re-evaluate the success of Meccer and Starmax as desktop assemblers in Kenya. From what I can recall Meccer closed shop and Starmax products are not that popular.
2009/12/11 Gakuru Alex <alexgakuru.lists@gmail.com>
I think our 'default' should not always be 'negative'. If you had attended the Digital Video Broadcast launch two days ago, then you would have found out that the University of Nairobi has embarked on local manufacture of "set top boxes" digital<-> analogue converters. The huge market being a sufficient reason justifying commercial viability.
On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 8:42 AM, Alvin Jason Ochieng <
ajochola@gmail.com>
wrote:
This would be hard to sell in this mmarket
My 2 cents
On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 8:41 AM, Gakuru Alex <alexgakuru.lists@gmail.com> wrote:
Saidi,
Just to thank you for the "knowledge value" I find in many of your posts.
Sincerely,
Alex
On Thu, Dec 10, 2009 at 10:27 PM, saidimu apale <saidimu@gmail.com> wrote: > This is old news (the VIA OpenBook @ http://www.viaopenbook.com/), but > it > triggered some "new" questions in mind: > - how feasible is it for a public-private-partnership (PPP) to setup a > fabrication/assembly plant using the reference designs? > - would the (eventual) cost be lower than off-the-shelf netbooks? > - is the boost to the local knowledge economy worth the risks > involved? > - would anyone buy the units? Or are Kenyans too beholden to brand > names > (HP, Toshiba etc)? > - is this a camouflaged reinvention of the wheel? > - are there times when other factors justify reinventing portions of a > wheel? What factors might those be? > Engadget's review > @ http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/27/via-openbook-hands-on/ > If the ICT Board and the Government are serious about kickstarting > local > this and that, perhaps they should be asking themselves such > questions. Or > have they already? > It would be great if university courses modified the reference designs > for a > local context and published their results. Or at the very least > modifying a > simpler circuit board like the Arduino http://www.arduino.cc/(Wired > has a > good article about it > > @ http://www.wired.com/techbiz/startups/magazine/16-11/ff_openmanufacturing ). > Saidi > _______________________________________________ > Skunkworks mailing list > Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke > http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks > ------------ > Skunkworks Server donations spreadsheet > > http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AopdHkqSqKL-dHlQVTMxU1VBdU1BSWJxdy1f... > ------------ > Skunkworks Rules > http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 > ------------ > Other services @ http://my.co.ke > Other lists > ------------- > Announce: > http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks-announce > Science: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/science > kazi: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/kazi/general > _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Server donations spreadsheet
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