Unlike smartphones DIY PCs are not only modular but also upgradeable, but what concerns me the most is - Are the available PC parts in the mainstream market - manufacturing and material wise - as ethical as the parts you use to make your own products?
the point i am trying to make here is as makers of fairest consumer smartphone in the market you must have developed a directory of hardware providers who must also be making ethical PC parts along with smartphone parts. So will your company be willing to share those partners so that European individuals who assemble their PCs themselves or locally can try to source material from them.
Since, i am not a European, residentially and most probably neither ethnically, so it might not be possible for someone like me (from India) to source parts from the very same hardware partners that you are associated with as they will be local to Africa and Europe. But since basic criteria of “goodness/social justice”, “fair-trade/economic justice” are the same universally in all modern human societies, someone like me can apply the same criteria that your ethics team formulated to source hardware from ethical companies locally with in Indian subcontinent or south east Asia.
so, i have these questions-
- what are your criteria besides conflict-free status?
- how do you investigate/crosscheck the veracity of claims of fair practices that your partners make?
- do you rely on already established fair trade certifications in mining industry and hardware industry and environmental agencies? what are those certifications? can you refer me to a list of these?
- do you also include criterion of gender justice like equal pay for men and women, paid maternity leave in your research?
- what is the gender balance in your own company at executive board level? do you have paternity leave and maternity leaves? are they fully paid?
i believe, specially the answers to first 4 questions that i raised will help the cause for fair-trade electronics in other parts of the world like Americas, India, China, Australia and South Africa and hopefully someday in Israel and rest of the middle-east too.
i respect and understand your choice to keep your operations limited to Europe, i think it’s the ethically moral and environmentally sensible choice. Since, your operations are limited to Europe, your consumers can rest assured that all your employees are paid and enjoy other perks that are at least uniformly and commonly agreed across Europe.
i for one don’t feel excluded for not having access to your smartphone in India. if Indians can send missions to mars and Australians can make world famous assault rifles, then it’s their problem if they have not developed a socially and environmentally sensitive brands and ethical consumer base. if only i was an engineer instead of a medical graduate, i could have taken things in my own hands, at least in India.
and please,for your European consumers please develop a fairfeaturephone and “fairlaptop” also. and i advice you to give an official option to have stock android (purer than Google’s android, i.e without even their unnecessary Google apps if possible) on your phone for an added fee, many android enthusiast will love to use the purest android on the fairest phone 
. or alternatively pitch for a Fairphone nexus (like i did here on android central) made exclusively in Europe but available worldwide via Google but only if that’s possible without compromising on your ethics.
best wishes,
a believer of fair trade and social justice from India
And I do like your post, so no offense from my side.