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Fairphone 1, with the back lid removed. Removable battery, dual SIM slots and one SDHC card slot are visible.

Fairphone is a social enterprise company which aims to develop smartphones that are designed and produced with minimal harm to people and the planet. The company is based in Amsterdam, Netherlands and was supported in its startup phase by the Waag Society, a foundation which aims to foster experimentation with new technologies, art and culture. The main motivations for founding Fairphone were to develop a mobile device that does not contain conflict minerals (which in smartphones are typically gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten), has fair labor conditions for the workforce along the supply chain producing it and help people to use their phone longer. The second version of the company's handset is one of the first modular smartphones available for purchase, with the product being designed to be easily repaired and upgraded.

History and mission

A Fairphone employee meeting tungsten miners at the New Bugurama Mining Company in Rwanda.
The supply chain for conflict-free tungsten in the Fairphone 2.

Fairphone was founded as a social enterprise company in January 2013, having existed as a campaign for two and a half years. The company's website states that its mission is to "bring a fair smartphone to the market – one designed and produced with minimal harm to people and planet". Fairphone, however, acknowledges that it will not be possible to produce a 100% fair phone yet, but with this aim it seeks to raise awareness among consumers and in the mobile phone industry.

"It's about the idea and not about the phone."

— Miquel Ballester (product strategy Fairphone)

Fairphone 1

Main article: Fairphone 1

2013: first production batch

  • The project raised money for the initial batch of phones through pre-orders, reaching the required 5,000 on 5 June 2013. It sold the entire initial production run of 25,000 handsets on 13 November 2013, nearly a month in advance of the revised mid-December release date.

2014: second production batch and partnerships

  • iFixit announced in April 2014 a partnership with Fairphone, to offer owners self-repair guides.
  • A second production run of 35,000 phones was released for sale on 21 May 2014.
  • 3D Hubs and Fairphone partnered in July 2014 to offer locally produced 3D printed cases.
  • In September 2014, The Phone Co-op announced itself to be the UK's sole stockist of Fairphone's second batch of handsets.

Fairphone 2

Main article: Fairphone 2
The back side of Fairphone 2 with a transparent cover, showing the modular design.

2015: development of the Fairphone 2

In February 2015, Fairphone announce its new production partner, Hi-P, after a selection process detailed on its blog. In June 2015, specifications and prices were published on Fairphone's official website. The Fairphone 2 started shipping in December 2015 and continued to be sold in 2016. In 2016 Fairphone announced a delay in deliveries of new order due to high demand from businesses. In January 2017 the date for the delivery of new Fairphone 2's was set at end of May 2017.

Awards & Certifications

Fairphone won the award for fastest-growing European tech startup at The Next Web conference in April 2015. Other nominees included Freespee (Sweden), YPlan (UK), Uplike (France), PackLink (Spain), Blacklane (Germany), and Festicket (UK).

The Fairphone 2 was the first smartphone to be awarded with a 10/10 score at iFixit for repairability.

Fairphone's founder and CEO Bas van Abel was one of the three winners of the German Environmental Award in 2016.

Fairphone is a certified BCorp. The Fairphone 2 was the first mobile phone to receive the Blue Angel award.

Criticism

The choice of using Mediatek's hardware for the Fairphone 1 device was questioned by Replicant's maintainers. Replicant's maintainers suggested other hardware vendors like I.MX, OMAP, Rockchip and Allwinner.

See also

References

  1. Company profile
  2. Miquel Ballester (product strategy Fairphone) in: The Utopia Gadget: "Fairphone is not a smartphone, but a social mission", motherboard.vice.com, 27 July '15 / in original (de): "Es geht um die Idee und nicht um das Telefon.", in: Das Utopie-Gadget: "Fairphone ist kein Smartphone, sondern eine soziale Mission", motherboard.vice.com, 27. Juli '15
  3. Mier, Joe. "5,000 Fairphones sold! Let's start production!". Fairphone Blog. Retrieved 5 June 2013.
  4. "First Fairphone Sells Out". Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  5. "Production Update: Delivery Timeline". Retrieved 29 November 2013.
  6. iFixit and Fairphone – Fixing The Cell Phone Problem, iFixit e-mail of April 3, 2014 (web version)
  7. Morgan, Pinder. "Fairphone – Ethics Meets Technology". Capital Technologies. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  8. van de Weerd, Roos. "Launching Fairphone 3D-printed cases with 3D Hubs". Fairphone. Retrieved 17 October 2014.
  9. "The Phone Co-op offers UK's first ethical smartphone". The Guardian. Guardian Media Group. 15 October 2014. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
  10. Ravenscroft, Fiona. "Fairphone: a review". The Phone Co-op blog. Retrieved 9 September 2014.
  11. "The path to finding our new production partner: Hi-P". Fairphone Blog. 19 February 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.
  12. Specification of Fairphone 2
  13. "Scaling up our social enterprise - challenges and achievements - Fairphone". Fairphone. 2016-12-22. Retrieved 2017-01-10.
  14. Van Wijhe, Jelle. "Tech5: Fairphone named Europe's fastest-growing startup of 2015". The Next Web. The Next Web. Retrieved 29 April 2015.
  15. "Modulares Smartphone: iFixit gibt Fairphone 2 die volle Punktzahl". heise online. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  16. Fairphone 2 Teardown (Technical report). iFixit. 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2017.
  17. "iFixit gives modular Fairphone 2 a rare 10 out of 10 for repairability [Updated]". Ars Technica. Retrieved 2017-01-10.
  18. Lomas, Charlotta. "Fairphone creator: Success is a signal to industry". Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  19. "Environmentally Friendly Mobile Phones". The Blue Angel. Retrieved 2017-01-10.
  20. Paul Kocialkowski (25 November 2013). "About the Fairphone". blog.replicant.us. Retrieved 5 January 2017.
  21. "Fairphone 2". redmine.replicant.us. 20 October 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2016. Fairphone has not reacted to these suggestions.

External links

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