Oh, I thought we were talking about phones in general. My bad.
Hmm… I think we’re missing a point there. Of course, we should try to take care. But you are never sure you won’t have a defective component at some point, e.g the plug which may die with the age (this happens to all phones). I know someone who abandoned his phone after 3 years because his speaker died for an unknown reason… and he couldn’t repair it because it would have cost more than half of the price of the phone, probably to replace a daughterboard in a specialised repair shop. Most of the time, you don’t need a repair, and you might never have needed one… yet. Also, iPhones are very good quality, so they may be defective or have problems less often. Nevertheless, it does happen and when it happens to you and you can’t repair your phone… you’re stuck.
This is personal preference. It’s high quality but completely closed source, no modifications such as custom ROMs allowed, and I’d hate that…
Edit: typo
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So what, just hop over to the shop (Murena) where you can buy it…
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I’m also very careful with my stuff. But there is no guarantee that things won’t get damaged or wears out. I probably won’t replace any part of my FP. But that doesn’t mean a company should make it hard to repair it. We should be able to use our devices as long as possible. Our phones are made of rare resources, so if you would like to continue have a nice life and a phone, we need longer software support and repairability.
All custom ROMs are by the way Android based. Post market OS is an exception, if it’s available. iOS or Android. Both have stolen many designs and features, they’re basically the same these days. I prefer Android, mostly because of the open source nature. Which is in decline unfortunately.
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I think this is also a very important point.
Some iPhones from users who take care and are lucky have a long lifetime. Nevertheless, for the users who have problems, Apple makes it hard to repair it. This, together with Apple’s aggressive marketing to buy the latest phone, makes the average sink. This is what counts. Fairphone’s estimated average according to a third party is 5,5 years (source: latest impact report of FP), unfortunately I don’t think such a figure exists for Apple…
Some iPhones last very long yes, but some are changed for a newer model after two years and a month because the repair is about as expensive as a new phone.
If Apple made it really easier for phones to be repaired (not their greenwashing self repair kit), some would probably reach 10 or 12 years.
And UBports, and Sailfish (though SF has closed source components) 
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And there’s a bunch of other Linux-based ones like Mobian & Manjaro. They almost invariably rely on some closed source because of the widespread practice in phones to have kernel drivers be supplied as just closed binary blobs. This is also an aspect that has a significant impact on the longevity, there’s device drivers in the Linux mainline kernel that have been there for decades, offering support long after any proprietary driver support from the vendor has ceased. Unfortunately Fairphone is limited in how much it can do about this and also at a worse position than Apple & Google when it comes to it.
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I’d like to protect ánd have a phone that’s easily repairable… but it seems there is no (official) waterproof case for the Fairphone (yet). There are several for the iPhone.
Somewhere else on this forum, someone said that Fairphone targets a niche market. Which market is this? People who care about resource use? People who care about fair trade? People who want to really own their phone?
I mean, I like fairphone and all and I might eventually someday buy one, but how do I ‘sell’ it to people who aren’t into all that?
I also still wonder how long it will take before the market dries up.
That’s the basic of the business, resource use is more a flag.
Don’t sell it to other’s. The repairabilty is available in other phones. The only difference is the Fair trade in mineral extraction and production line wages.
People who care about those issues do not need it to be sold to them they will want it as soon as they are aware, given a few extra pennies to spend.
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So, if Apple suddenly decides to change their mineral extraction and/or supply chain and/or production line and would make modular iPhones with easy to repair phones, they could become a competitor to the Fairphone?
Yeah, I know it sounds ridiculous. The board of Apple and it’s shareholders will probably not accept such major changes, because it would hurt their profitability. After all, Apple isn’t a B Corporation.
They would, but some odd freaks like me don’t buy Apple products and if there is a choice I’d still choose Fairphone.
Is there something like another fair company comparable to Fairphone that makes fair desktop computers?
As far as I know you can get a lot of open source software on those devices, but I rarely read something about a computer with fair minerals and such.
But maybe that’s a bit offtopic.
No.
There’s a ‘cousin’ company that makes Fairtrade focused charging cables
and a company that makes modular laptops
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If you are ok with something with a bit less computing power (tablet), then you might want to check out this:
I suggest you to watch related youtube videos.
I suppose there’s another niche manufacturer that offers similar repairability but in general I don’t really think that is true. Sure, some mainstream phones can be repaired but often not really at reasonable prices or with reasonable effort.
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Repair costs usually have to do with taxes on incomes of the people that repair the phones. If those state policies change, repairing a phone will become cheaper.
That’s a very odd view. All money is effectively a tax, a way of people communally using a counting system.
Some states, maybe China and India, have lower wages and so can repair the West’s items cheaper, despite the extra carriage costs.
So which people are you referring to that could do with less taxes to support your idea?
And do you consider you are paying ‘too much’ for repairs ?
My English isn’t that great.
I’m referring to VAT / Value Added Taxation (BTW in dutch). If that would be removed from the invoice that would normally accompany a bill for repairing a phone, people would have to pay less for repairing their phones.
If I would like to have the accu / battery of my iPhone repaired at the local Coolblue then that would be something like €64,- while the accu / battery itself only costs like € 30,-. So a price of € 44,- would be far more reasonable.
The other thing I was referring to was income tax. States that have their own money system can do without income tax, because they can create their own money and then spend it into existence. (They would use taxes to remove money from circulation however.)
Usually commercial banks are used for money creation, but sovereign states could just do that themselves.
Again, I’m getting offtopic.
My point is that the fairphone is a niche product that doesn’t do well in the current monetary / financial environment, because the economy isn’t focused on repairing stuff (yet). It’s admirable to use Fairphone in the same way that it’s admirable to invest in durable investments. You don’t do it because it directly benefits you, but because it’s better for the greater good.
I hope there is nothing lost in translation!
Nothing lost in translation. It’s more a focus of what is being saved and money is the last thing I would want to save.
Generally ‘the greater’ good’ means self sacrifice of one for the many, whereas the opposite is that if everyone makes a small change it can be huge for some minorities.
That this topic is trying to compare comes done to money. If Fairphone had unlimited resource it there would be no discussion.
However the resource that is money is not the resource that I consider the issue. More like your statement, but different. It’s not about comparing Fairphone to Apple in the financial aspect but a personal will to treat people kinder. If that means buying a Fairphone taxes and money are irrelevant.
Ah, nice!
Well, it does seem we have a kind of ‘Prisoner’s Dilemma’ when it comes to the environment. If you get my drift.
Somehow people (like me) think they have to ‘give up’ something when they switch to Fairphone.
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