The company behind the upgradable Framework laptop may be preparing to branch out.
Framework Computer mentioned the expansion plans in a Tuesday email to customers that announced $18 million in new funding from investors, which will “fund development of upcoming product categories and the long roadmap of new modules and geographic expansion for the Framework Laptop,” the San Francisco-based startup says.
The company is also signaling that its upcoming products will be modular like the Framework laptop, as the money will help it “accelerate bringing upgradability, customization, and repair to more of consumer electronics.”
“We’re not ready to share what the next products are just yet, but this funding unlocks categories even more ambitious than our first one,” the company adds. “We have a detailed plan in place for the next two years and napkin sketch ideas going out a couple of decades.”
That’s good news for anyone hoping for more repairable and customizable electronics, which is still a rarity in today’s consumer market, outside desktop PCs. The Framework laptop launched last year as a unique notebook built mostly out of modular parts, which can be replaced and swapped out. The resulting product earned high marks in our review for creating a proficient Windows PC that promises to truly last, assuming future components remain compatible.
The same approach could attract some appeal if it was applied to smartphones, which are notoriously difficult to repair and generally impossible to upgrade. Currently, Fairphone is among the few vendors that sell modular smartphones; Google gave up on Project Ara in 2016.
Although Framework Computer is remaining mum on future product categories, the company says its core business goal is to “maximize the number of people happily using their Framework hardware and minimize the amount of material sitting in a drawer or going to a landfill.”
