I do believe you. It's economics of scale: they don't have it. While most of the... | Hacker News

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skriticos2 on Nov 12, 2013 | parent | context | favorite | on: How long do disk drives last?

I do believe you. It's economics of scale: they don't have it.

While most of the western world has huge fright ship docks that can load/unload and ship relatively price efficient, Africa does not.

This means, the primary means to ship stuff there is via airplane, which is notoriously weight constrained, which in turn makes shipping bulk goods expensive.

This makes shipping newer, lighter tech even more cost effective than old hardware.

p.s. This is probably true for anything they need to import, not just tech.

mattlutze on Nov 12, 2013 | [–]

I'd be curious to hear more about your history in international shipping, particularly to countries in Africa.

Many countries on the continent appear to have rather robust capacity for their economies.

http://ports.com/browse/africa/map-view/

mrgriscom on Nov 12, 2013 | [–]

I think a lot of that price is actually import duties.

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