Hi Tom, Thank you very much for choosing me to send a sample, I really appreciate it.
However, I think the company made a big mistake in the shipping process, by choosing DHL to ship to Brazil. DHL is great, their service is amazing. But Brazil is a beast in itself, and the best carrier here is not always the best solution. I was really excited about the possibility of getting my hands on a Cubie A5E, it looks very promising. But unfortunately, the Brazilian government's import taxes are abusive. Here, the taxes are calculated from the FOB price + shipping. You put the expected FOB price (USD 10 in my case), but the shipping was ridiculous USD 500. The route was CHINA->UNITED STATES->BRAZIL instead of direct delivery. So the final customs amount was approximately BRL 3,000 (~USD 500), because of the shipping costs. It makes absolutely no sense for a USD 10-20 product. Yes, Brazilian customs taxes are the highest in the world, and you didn't know it, but this could be avoided if you contacted me before shipping. Brazilian taxes are rough 94% of the full value (in USD) in most cases. Not to debate it here, but it's true. Please tell Radxa's shipping department that Ali Express is the only viable solution for shipping (and selling) foreign items to Brazil, due to their shipping costs of USD 3. They have own direct Air routes to Brazil daily. Ali Express often runs promotions with free shipping, and this helps a lot in calculating taxes, consequently increasing sales. Since Radxa's shipping is from China, this makes perfect sense. Consider setting up an official store on Ali Express for such cases. Unfortunately, I had no choice but to refuse the delivery. USD 500 is not an option for me. Thank you very much, I will consider buying a Cubie A5E if it is sold on Ali Express in the future. Luzemario Em sexta-feira, 3 de janeiro de 2025 às 12:50:50 UTC-3, hipboi escreveu: > Dear SUNXI community, > > It’s been a long time since I last wrote to this list. As some of you may > know, I left Cubieboard years ago due to internal power struggles and went > on to found Radxa. Since then, Radxa hasn’t released any SBCs based on > Allwinner platforms. There were a few reasons for this, but one of the > biggest was that Allwinner seemed to have fallen behind on new ARM > technology, and their SoCs weren’t as attractive compared to Rockchip’s. > > But now, things are starting to change: > > 1. > > *New leadership at Allwinner:* The original founders have stepped > back, and a younger, more dynamic management team has taken over. For > example, the new President, Ye Mao (叶茂), is an old friend of mine from my > time at Allwinner. He’s also an open-source enthusiast—you can check out > some of his work at Xradio here: > https://github.com/XradioTech/xradiotech-wiki/commits/master > 2. > > *Strong business performance:* Allwinner has been doing quite well > financially in recent years. Their revenue is now comparable to > Rockchip's, > and their gross margins are also catching up—even though Allwinner chips > are priced much lower. This speaks to their impressive cost-control > capabilities. With strong business performance, Allwinner is now in a > position to make long-term investments, like supporting the developer > community. > 3. > > *A renewed focus on open source:* While Rockchip has turned their > focus on the EV market, Allwinner has recognized the power of the > open-source community. They’ve formed a dedicated team and are putting > resources into building a better open-source ecosystem. > 4. > > *Exciting new roadmap:* Allwinner has an aggressive roadmap and is > working on a new chip with advanced process technology. They’ve been > actively communicating with us about feature demands, including specific > hardware and software requirements. We’ve provided feedback based on what > makers and developers need, and I believe this new chip will exceed > everyone’s expectations. > > With all of this happening, I’m thrilled to announce that *Cubieboard is > back!* > > Radxa is officially launching its first Allwinner-based SBC: the *Cubie > A5E*, powered by the Allwinner A527/T527 octa-core Cortex-A55 SoC. > > The Cubie A5E is incredibly compact, measuring just *56 x 69mm*, but it > packs nearly all the essential interfaces you’d expect from an SBC: > > - Allwinner A527 or T527 (industrial version) > - Dual Gigabit Ethernet (one with PoE support) > - Full-size HDMI > - USB 3.0 Type-A and USB 2.0 OTG (Type-C) > - M.2 M Key for 2230 NVMe SSDs > - 40-pin GPIO > > You can find more details on the SUNXI wiki page here: > > https://linux-sunxi.org/Radxa_Cubie_A5E > > Allwinner has been incredibly supportive of Radxa’s return to the SUNXI > community. They’ve even donated some chips to help us contribute to the > community’s growth. We’re pleased to announce that we’re giving away free > *Cubie > A5E SBCs* to all developers in the SUNXI community who joined this > mailing list in 2024 or earlier. > > If you’re eligible, you can claim your free Cubie A5E here: > > https://forms.gle/NRcVtxT9j6c749rj6 > > We’ll start shipping the boards before the Lunar New Year, so please make > sure your shipping address is accurate. > > Let’s work together to bring back the glory of the SUNXI community! > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "linux-sunxi" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to linux-sunxi+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/linux-sunxi/3a34fc10-41be-4572-905a-1ab7aac10706n%40googlegroups.com.
