Fairphone 1 maintenance comes to an end

Hey, the decision was debated over several weeks here at Fairphone. Once we came to a decision, we needed a week to write down the statement, the emails and have them all translated. We then released them to you. I do not see how we could have done this faster…

2 Likes

I think may be, it could be a ideal to try a restart after a while. May be later Fairphone may have bit more power for the 4.4.4-project. I wouldn’t give up so fast.
Or would it may be easier to try it with Android 5. I don’t know it’s just a idea.

Ben

1 Like

How about when you started debating it? Bi-monthly newsletter, four-liner:

"Here at FP, we are currently discussing how to go forward with the software updates, which take up quite some resources and ran into some expected and some unexpected problems. If you want to read about the technical problems, and maybe are able to help as an android dev, click here. Everything is on the table, even stopping the effort to bring KitKat to your FP1, which would be very sad indeed. "

Please understand that I really do understand that it was a complicated, multi-faceted decision. And I understand life as a PR / community relations person is hard, and you are channeling quite an amount of information from Alice to Bob.

But between August 2016 and July 2017, I didn’t hear from you. Of course this might be partially self-inflicted due to my absence of twitter and the forum. But I don’t understand why a short update between “arrives in Sept.” and “all hands, abandon ship” shouln’t have been possible.

1 Like

Hey Fairphone-Team

I know you really try it hard, but you may understand the FP1 ownes, they really hoped it wouldn’t end so fast. :’(

Now they think you just want to sell FP2.

Ben

Hey @humorkritik, I hope you understand that, while having a discussion internally about a decision, it is rather weird to communicate about this publicly…
Maybe this discussion helps you a little to understand: Should FP announce early and sometimes get it wrong, or better not announce at all?

Other then that I can only point to the articles, forum AMA and beta category I mentioned before.

3 Likes

I remember the discussion you link - I was a bit more active on the forum these days. Have a look at the response to your own question here.

We could say that the announcement of 4.4 for September 2016 maybe was premature, and a good example how things work differently than anticipated. Again, I really do understand all the difficulties mentioned.

I hope you understand that I am asking you to consider how communications looked from the side of everyone on this thread, and the general audience. We didn’t know that you had a internal discussion about dropping support. Some who went looking have found your [updates on the process] (Latest news [11-07-2017] and FAQ - Fairphone 1 KitKat 4.4.4 update). Which, of course, doesn’t mention anything about stopping the efforts.

But no, I don’t find it weird at all to proactively tell people that you are discussing internally. (Why should it?) I guess that many FP1 owners would have liked to know that the option of droppign support was on the table. Personally, I don’t see that it would have harmed Fairphone’s decision process, nor the company. It appears that you are of a different opinion, and I assume that the team has discussed this.

So that’s that.

My whish for FP2 customers is: if you discuss if and when to drop support, both for hardware and software independently, tell them early and in short and concise words.
No long blogpost, no apologetic explanations, just facts. You’ve got their mail addresses.

6 Likes

If I could I would give at least 3 Likes to this statement. Thanks. :+1:

2 Likes

having no clue whatsoever…that´s what i feel about your announcement re “end of f1 maintenance”

with virtually no notice period you have the guts to kill off your/my f1-vision -> SHAME, FAIRPHONE!

you are no longer an option for me to support the idea of fair electronics

great stuff, you are advertising your recycling program as a means of getting rid or our f1 phones that you have just made virtually impossible to operate due to the lack of supply of batteries… well, i do understand the thinking of FAIRPHONE

If there is a FP3, I would like it to be the size of the FP1, the FP2 is too big for me.
I’d like also a compatibility withe Lineage OS, and that the spare parts be available for a very long time, not as the FP1, which i have and cannot repair anymore since you ended its support. If the idea of the company was a sustainable phone, I think you should make the new phones a lot like the olders so that we could have spare parts and repair for a longer time. My FP1(U) is not even 3 years old and I can’t repair it already, that’s a shame.

2 Likes

I fully support this statement.

I guess it’s not just me, that was attracted to Fairphone for its transparency and open discussion (besides other aspects).

Honestly: I guess you should have made that decision to drop support way sooner, as - at least for me - it is absolutely understandable that a small company like yours lacks the resources to support 2 very different phone models while working on the next. Therefore FP3 should really share its genes with FP2 or - in my opinion - you might face this trouble again someday soon.

Another idea: As you released the cost breakdown, you maybe could have done something like that for FP1 spare parts as well; especially for the batteries. Like: for producing XXXX batteries we would have to sell them at XX,- Euro. An e-mail to all customers and a pre-order phase (in case of enough positive response), and there you go. You still could try it, or at least present some number crunching, you sure have done.

My wish: You still have the advantage of an active, engaged, supportive and somewhat idealistic community.
You really should make use of that gift and not let it go to waste by disappointing expectations unnecessarily.

4 Likes

Anyone here knows the expression “No Man is an Island”?

I think that the biggest fail of Fairphone is that apparently even their own customers still do not understand that Fairphone is a tiny player in a market populated by hundreds of interdependent companies.

You are all being angry at Fairphone because you do not even know the suppliers, or sub-suppliers, or sub-sub-sub suppliers who stopped making the parts Fairphone tries to sell. So you point your anger at the party who tried to make a change, instead of the companies who make this change impossible, because they go on with business as usual.

If we would understand even a tiny portion of how the electronics industry works, then we should know that this rage and anger at Fairphone is just plain silly and makes us look like the spoiled consumerist kids we still are. And who we hoped we were no longer when we bought the Fairphone.

Also, read this:

Fairphone is not an Island

18 Likes

I would certainly buy an extra FP1 battery if I could find one, and support the idea of checking with a somewhat supportive community of FP1 users in this regard, or possibly seriously supporting the initiative of checking validity for an alternative battery as discussed in the forum with the Huawei HB5N1H even at 1800mAh.

If you would understand even a tiny portion of relationship between seller and customer then you should know that we payed for this phone to Fairphone - no one else. And if the seller disappoints the customer the anger goes there.

Keep that in mind when you buy a phone somewhere else.

If one understands even a tiny portion of how complex spare parts are, then one is actually angry at Fairphone for letting an entire idea die just for being too lazy.

I know that getting new display units, main boards, you name it, produced for the FP1 is not possible any longer (at least not when trying to keep costs within a reasonable range).

But batteries? They are the most not complex part of a phone and everyone has to replace them frequently. There must be a way to solve this problem. Watching the community coming up with some (more adventurous) ideas indicates that FP has not tried as hard on this as they should have.

This is really disappointing.

4 Likes

Ähm, nope. Ask Samsung!

By the way, I think they made pretty it’s not technically impossible, it’s financially impossible if the company wants to stay healthy. Fairphone is not Apple, having heaps of cash waiting to be spent.

5 Likes

That’s a good one. :joy: Are you trying to troll? :wink:

Samsung wanted to get 3500 mAh out of 37.9 mm x 97.8 mm x 4.9 mm ( = 18162 mm³ ), which means 0.19 mAh / mm³ - they flew too high.

The FP1 battery gets 2000 mAh from 61 mm x 53 mm x5 mm ( = 16165 mm³ ) resulting in 0.12 mAh / mm³.

You notice the difference, I hope. I didn’t state that FP should sell us 3071 mAh replacement batteries, just the good old simple ones.

I think you missed a “clear” between “pretty” and “it’s”, otherwise I don’t get the meaning.
Yes, I don’t think they can produce the more complex spare parts (main board, display etc.) for reasonable costs. But simple wear parts like batteries should be possible.

“Fair” and “sustainable” doesn’t fit well with “Oh, you can’t use it any longer because the battery is dead. Buy a new phone.”.

3 Likes

Usually, that’s where 3rd party manufactures come in if the market is large enough. Which is where what rootboi said comes in: small manufacturer, small crowd of customers. We had it coming, but I still would have liked a proper warning. (And, yes, maybe a cost breakdown.)

1 Like

Only investing a lot of money to produce such batteries could solve this. Most likely you can do this only in Asia, and then you are alway forced to produce a minimum of usually many thousand units. But FP is most likely not able to finance this, because their profits are very low.

2 Likes

If I would have had the idea I couldn’t use my FP1 for more than 3 years I would never have bought it.

3 Likes