Si tu tienes dos FP, tu hija un iphone, ¿qué necesidad tienes de un FP4? 
If you have two FP’s, your daughter has an iphone, what need do you have for an FP4?
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I am pretty convinced the advantages by introducing a new model and expand your userbase is bigger then not introducing a new model and serve only incrowd people.
Yes some, maybe many, but my notion is that Fairphone is only produced to support the notion of furthering the fair treatment of the mineral resources workers and their environments. So I support Fairphone only for that reason. i.e the phone is just a spin off.
I do not need any Fairphones. It’s not about need it all about supporting the notion of fairtrade, which my daughter wanted. I’m just seeing how well Fairphone are doing in their attempt at promoting fair trade via a product.
I have bought six bottles of organic and fairtrade rum for the same reason, I don’t need any rum, but I’m trying it out. It’s not the best tasting rum but by buying six it stops me going out to buy some non fairtrade rum.
My money has to go somewhere and a fairtrade business is more attractive than others, no matter the product.
You do know that lots of energy and other resources were practically wasted in production, not to mention the burden of the environment, because you bought anything you have no use for? Just to call bottles of fairtrade rum you or anybody else will not drink your own? Why not buy rare fairtrade at Sotheby’s next time?
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Por lo que he leido en el foro (con traductor por medio), con menos de un año el FP3 ya ha empezado a dar problemas, de ahi mi duda primera, que di por contestada en las primeras respuestas.
El FP2, me ha dado muchos problemas y se han quedado sin piezas uno o dos años antes de lo que comentaron.
Lo que he leido del FP3 y FP3+, me da la sensación que sigue los mismos derroteros, en cuanto a problemas.
Ahora me planteo esperar al FP4 como última oportunidad para la empresa Fairfhone, independientemente de cuando saquen sus móviles. Un movil supuestamente mas grande, caro, y con unos antepasados “problematicos”. La verdad, no se que hacer…
¿Quieres ser mi mecenas? Acepto FP y ron… 
From what I have read in the forum (with translator through), with less than a year the FP3 has already started to give problems, hence my first question, which I thought was answered in the first answers.
The FP2, has given me many problems and they have run out of parts one or two years before what they said.
What I have read about FP3 and FP3+, gives me the feeling that it follows the same path, in terms of problems.
I now consider waiting for the FP4 as a last chance for the Fairfhone company, regardless of when they release their phones. A supposedly bigger, more expensive, and with “problematic” ancestors. I really don’t know what to do…
Do you want to be my patron? I accept FP and rum…
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Good example. My conclusion is different though. People wanted to have f.e. bigger cars which look sporty at the same time - the result of that are SUVs.
Thats how economic works (in most cases) and it’s how it worked for bio and fairtrade products in the supermarket. There is more selection of those products, as they see that it is that what customers prefere.
But even if we say, companies choose, what people buy (that would make a marionette out of each one of us) do they decide how often we buy a product?
Your example just says “we sell SUVs”. But is that industries forcing us to buy a new cr every other year, as they reveal the next generation?
In economics customers are the leading part. But customers are the weakest part as well. We buy more than we need, cause thats what the industrie tells us to (there I’m with you) but it’s not the industrie who is responsible for that behavior - it’s each ones of us.
If I tell you to buy an SUV, you surely won’t because you decide for your selfe, why don’t we if the industries tells us to?
And as said before FP never said “throw your phone away this is what you need” - others kind of do.
So industries is capable for how they build products and what spirit they enforce.
You, me and all others are responsible for what they buy and which spirit they increase / give roome to.
My choose it is to life as social and environmental fair as possible and affordable. I assume most of us do think so.
I use my phone for 5 years now even if there were 5 upgraded versions of this series since than. So I do decide to buy a new phone - or if I don’t.
Making the industries responsible for my consumption is like saying McDonalds is the reason ppl are fat. It’s not - it’s the customer who decided to eat there every day.
But it’s the similar in data privacy. Sure WhatsApp is doing tons of wrong things (data privacy wise) but the users allow them to go ahead with that.
They suggest you need that messenger - and ppl just follow instead of choosing an better choice.
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If you’re in the UK, West > Cornwall DM me for a drink 
I have been following this thread for a few days and I must confess that I´m a bit surprised about your philosophy of life towards Fairtrade. I guess people have different views on what Fairtrade is and what is its role in the bigger picture towards living in a better planet.
For me, Fairtrade is very important, but it´s just a layer of the whole picture. It´s a key factor to choose products once you have decided that you need to buy something (not the other way around). The key point for most environmental issues is that less is more. I support Fairtrade as much as I can, but I don´t see it as common sense to buy something that is Fairtrade just because it is Fairtrade, especially if you don´t need it. That is the part that is shocking to me about your philosophy of life, @anon9989719.
If you buy Fairtrade food products (let´s say you buy 3 chocolate bars), the worst thing that can happen is that the chocolate is going to be eaten by someone at home, even if it takes months to be eaten (because you didn´t need it nor really want it). Now, the problem comes (from my point of view, anyway) when you buy an electronic device because it encourages Fairtrade and you like the idea of supporting it BUT you already have a phone that works fine. Unless you decide to buy the Fairphone 4 and sell the other ones to someone in your close circle that might be interested in the idea of having a sustainable phone, I believe that buying that new model doesn´t justify anything and does more harm than benefit the Fairtrade chain. In the end, those phones are going to be lying around somewhere in your house with no other purpose than collecting dust and you having a “cool” collection of Fairtrade devices to show to you family and friends.
I´m quite reluctant to believe that creating a new model every year is the right way to go for Fairphone. However, I see it as a useful tool geared towards attracting NEW CUSTOMERS, not the old ones. The old ones should be mindful enough to know that they should keep using theirs for as long as they can. New Fairphone owners are going to keep the Fairtrade chain going and they are going to increase the brand’s popularity.
Again, the problem might be that terms like need and desire are often mixed in our heads and that´s conflictive for a sustainable lifestyle. In my case, I do support Fairtrade food products a lot because they don´t generate as big as a carbon footprint for the environment, but for other products, such as electronics, I just use common sense: if I really need it, I buy something that might be more expensive but it´s durable and then do my best to keep using it, repairing it or giving it to someone that might benefit from it.
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Thanks for your response, sure my philosophy is a bit unusual to some, Ok many 
I don’t need to buy a phone, it’s an investment in fairtrade and my daughter wanted to invest in the Fairphone, which is a measurable £900 going to Fairphone for two phones.
I wasn’t focused on environmental issues, as I am vegan for 47 years, grow some cereal, and all my bean and veg, use wood for fuel and solar panels and collect rainwater for drinking. My carbon footprint is nearer 60Kg equiv fossil fuel per year compared to the average in the UK of 6000Kg.
The damage I cause to the environment of two FP3s is insignificant to me but the fair wages to the miners and factory workers is huge.
The rum and chocolate and phones will be consumed, it time.
Whereas that may be true it is insignificant in environmental terms and can actual be damaging.
Here’s a story that indicates a relationship between Fairtrade and the environment.
There was a company, Bishopston Trading in Bristol, Uk
Some 32 years ago they set up a fairtrade organic fabric business. Growing, spinning, weaving etc all done in India.
There’s info on the www about them, but I knew one of the founders and this is their story.
The families in India used the extra money to alleviate poverty and they sent their children to schools and universities. It only took a generation for the children not to want to work in the fields and the industry so the whole fairtrade business closed down…
Now their children are more affluent and have a far more damaging impact upon the environment than before the fairtrade helped them out of poverty.
There are more stories that may make you want to cry.
There can be no gain without loss in a world of consumers, you just chose what it is you want to consume and use, the phone, the environment or poor people.
So I use them all but it’s using the poor people that really makes me want to cry, not wars and climate change that will happen no matter what we buy.
When I was very young there were 2 billion people, now there’s 8 billion, being fair is the only way to spend my pay.
So the philosophy is not about living in a better planet but having a better soul in an ever increasingly destructive environment. Of course some people may not have or recognise the concept of soul, but if it can be imagined it can be made and no external environment is going to mess with that.
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Thanks for the detailed reply. The example you showed us is truly disheartening, but things like that happen a lot. I know Fairtrade has its flaws and that´s why I try to get informed before I buy products, but you never know what is going on exactly. There is too much greenwashing nowadays, unfortunately.
Going back to the phone topic, what strikes me is why you invest in Fairtrade that way (buying electronics that might not be used, or not very often, at least), but I know this is a very personal thing. As you very well said, you are also doing your part by being vegan, which is very nice too.
One thing I was thinking about, though, is that if you decide to keep your “old” phone, at some point you´re going to need to buy spare parts or modules, which contributes to Fairtrade too, as those modules are made by Fairphone partners too. Of course, paying the full price of a new phone is a bigger contribution that buying a 50€ module, but everything counts, right? That brings me to one of the initial topics of the thread: not having available spare parts sucks and threatens the survival of the business model, at least partially. That being said, I know it must be really hard and not very profitable to keep old spare parts or modules in production for more than 4-5 years due to low demand.
FYI, you can buy fairtrade meat as well.
I think slowly we are losing focus…
Yeah, sure. I know. But not eating meat is more sustainable than eating fair meat.
I agree. Let´s get back on track.
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Extracting a phrase and adding such a comment is loosing focus, but at that point it was just you, there was no we.
As my argument was and is about fairtrade versus sustainability it stretches in my case to include all sentient beings so fairtrade meat would not be a suitable investment for me as I don’t want to use dumb animals.
So the question remains, about the sustainability issue of producing an FP4 when an FP3 is usable. I’m sure you can agree that the fairtrade issue is fine if a) phone are being made fairly and b) they are being sold in sufficient numbers to keep Fairphone afloat.
So maybe the off topic issue is something I brought to the front by harping on about fairness when the query seems to require more consideration for many people on the sustainability/reliability of Fairphone as a company, usability/suitability of the phone itself and long term environmental impact.
All these are very difficult considerations so I opt for the simple fair, and more easily measured, treatment of those that suffer directly by my exploitation.
OH! and of course the only reason I have an FP is that my daughter wanted one and finds it unusable/unsuitable which leads me to wonder if the FP4 would assuage those issues and be overall a more productive path to take than producing more FP3s
And at a certain point before it was not. The comment about fairtrade vegan food itself already was loosening focus. And - attention, off-topic - so-called fairtrade soy bean monocultures are not sustainable, too.
So fascinating how you can argue about my remark about off-topic and write about two to three paragraphs about it…
Difficult to respond on my FP3 on long journey, but I will try to entertain you.
Writing about fairtrade is easy it’s the sustainability one that is fraught with inconsolable arguments.
It’s true Fairtrade is not directly the topic here but it’s part of the journey of the question 'is it good to release in shorter distance ’
But either way arguing about on or off topic isn’t the topic for sure. So thats a debate between you both (PM). 
But I think, we came to the point, were a new device is necessary for a healthy company. And that we need to learn and life an long lasting consumption - not just for electronic devices but for other goods as well.
I think FP is far away from being one of the common companies and teaches, lives and proclaims a fair and lasting consumption.
At the same time, FP needs to evelop on providing spare parts for the 5 years.
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That goal is already achieved. The FP2 was released 2015, shipped 2016 and now in the middle of 2021, more than five years after, the first spare part is not on shelf any more.
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I think the 5 year argument is that it’s only available on the first day of sale.
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Good to know. Heard differently, but as I do not own a FP jet, I would agree - mission accomplished. 
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