Being an IT geek I am quite excited about this project http://www.raspberrypi.org/ especially if you remember the good old days of the C64 and BBC micro.
I was quite shocked to read that because of UK taxation and the attitude of UK companies that it is going to be made in China.
“Simply put, if we build the Raspberry Pi in Britain, we have to pay a lot more tax”
“We investigated a number of possible UK manufacturers, but encountered a few problems, some of which made matters impossible. Firstly, the schedule for manufacture for every UK business we approached was between 12 and 14 weeks (compared to a 3-4 week turnaround in the Far East). That would have meant you’d be waiting three months rather than three weeks to buy your Raspberry Pi, and we didn’t think that was acceptable.
Secondly, we found that pricing in the UK varied enormously with factories’ capacity. If a factory had sufficient capacity to do the work for us, they were typically quoting very high prices; we’d expected a delta between manufacture pricing between the UK and the Far East, but these build prices not only wiped out all our margin, but actually pushed us into the red.”
So why can’t the UK produce a £15 circuit board?
By: J Boyle - 15th January 2012 at 01:29
Speaking of Pavlov’s dogs…
I’m not sure we can trust any country where The Dog Wisperer is on The Good Food Channel. 😀
By: jbritchford - 14th January 2012 at 23:10
But, the “Workers” are literally pavlov dogs.
Literally? 😀
By: tornado64 - 13th January 2012 at 20:33
my nikon d40 slr is a fantastic piece of kit ( made in thailand but still good )
i recentltly baught a nikon compact ( chinese and a bag of sh*te !! )
but we are doing the typical british thing ( i remember early british datsuns being called ” jap cr*p !!” )
first they’ll get the market then the quality will follow !!
the aerospace company i worked for happily had a chinese student learning how to do it correctly !!
sadly i think we are at the dawn of changing world ecconomies ( we are selling more bentleys and luxury goods to china than ever before ( probably some very bad communists )
By: Bushell - 13th January 2012 at 19:17
Dont know about Chinese aeroplanes, but never buy a Chinese rotor arm for your MG TA.
By: PeeDee - 13th January 2012 at 18:06
At the end of the day, you do actually get what you pay for in China, low wages (Even with the expected 19% rise this year and next 5-8 years!). But, the “Workers” are literally pavlov dogs. Turn up for 40 hours and go home, not a brain cell was used for initiative. The cell leader or manager is the only one who does any thinking.
Corners are cut to save costs, often diverting from the specified drawing requirements. EVEN ON AEROPLANES. Do not fly on a Chite built airliner. Chite = Chinese Shi**.
Better have gone up the road to Indonesia or India. Better quality product, people “Think” and are innovative. Easier to deal with.
How do I know? I have friends with clothing factories moving from China to Cambodia, India, Indonesia for the reasons above.
I have witnessed first hand the aircraft production. Mainly on Carbon Fibre items….you know, wwhere they alter a ply direction because it’s easier to lay, once it’s been in Autoclave, this cannot be found.
By: ppp - 13th January 2012 at 14:21
Lower wages, lower taxes, less regulation, and in many cases little or no-IP to pay for in the whole chain (i.e low costs for each supplier in the chain which would otherwise accumulate) and machinary ect will probably be much cheaper to aquire too.
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January 13, 2012 at 12:46 pm