At that time they did everything to invoke the impression that they do know. And the reason why we bought their phones was that we believed them. I don’t think that 30,000 people would have spent 330 bucks each, knowing that the manufacturer is grossly incompetent. Else, the company would have never come this far. Now, they are leaving scorched earth with many of their early adopters.
I do think that when it became apparent to them, that they are unable to fulfil their promises, they should have immediately warned the users, instead of making more empty promises, which they did.
And they should not end this SNAFU with a false claim of having supported the FP1 for 3 1/2 years. The only thing that ended yesterday was their empty promises. Support has already ended ages ago.
For me, the FP1 was the first (and probably last) time to ever buy a new phone. Else, I only use second hand devices with custom ROMs on them. I did this certainly to support a noble cause, but I did not do it to be treated as a Guinea pig.
The point is, that we already had swallowed the sour apple of buying a fairphone which was not really fair: Only two of the > 70 minerals uses have traceable supply chains, workers in China did not receive living wages. The work hour limit was 60 hours/week which is the legal limit in China anyway. Fairphone positioned itself against binding regulations of supply chain responsiblity, even though their business would have been impossible if it hadn’t been for the Dodd-Frank act…
So what’s left? What good cause has the FP1 actually served? From my point of view, the glass is at least four fifth empty.