Afterword

ThimphuTech was the first technology blog in Bhutan. We started writing it in 2009, just as broadband and mobile internet started to take off. (Although internet in Bhutan was launched in 1999, it was either super-slow or super-expensive, and was only used by a selected few).

In the blog, we wrote about technology and food, but also about plenty of other stuff. The blog became popular and influential in Bhutan. A companion bi-weekly column -- Ask Boaz -- was published for many years in the Kuensel, Bhutan's national newspaper. (The complete Kuensel columns are available as an ebook, Blogging with Dragons).

We stopped updating the blog when we left Bhutan in 2014, but the information within the posts can still prove useful, and thus we decided to keep it online.

We thank all our readers.
Tashi Delek,
Boaz & Galit.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Use FlipKart to compare prices!

FlipKart.com is India's leading online shopping retailer. They deliver a variety of goods - mainly books and electronics, but now expanding to other categories - to addresses in India. Delivery is often free. They also deliver to border towns like Jaigaon. Prices are usually below MRP. Various forms of payment are accepted, including debit and credit cards, as well as online payment using Indian bank accounts. In some locations they even accept cash-on-delivery (COD), and by cash they mean INR, not BTN.... By the way, Jaigaon is currently not one of the COD locations.


I have found FlipKart to be very useful when comparing  prices. Here's an example. I recently got an email from one of the computer vendors in Thimphu, which contain prices of Acer laptops. I looked up these laptops on FlipKart. The specs are nearly identical. Here's a table comparing the prices on Flipkart and the local vendor's price:

Model Thimphu
(Local vendor)		Jaigaon
(FlipKart.com)		 Difference
Acer Aspire AS5733
29,100
24,851
4249 (15%)
Acer Aspire E1-431
27,965
22,017
5948 (22%)

If I remember correctly, there's no tax on IT equipment coming from India. Why the huge difference? Your guess is as good as mine.
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