Fairphone 1 maintenance comes to an end

Thank you for your ideas. The recycling program is mentioned on our page for Fairphone 1 users here: https://frphn.co/fp1

We mention this page in all our communications with FP1 owners and when people have questions on the forum, twitter, facebook or elsewhere.

As for the batteries; after a long process of research and debate in the team, we decided not to source new batteries.

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For an ethical company that garnered a huge amount of support the thought that all FP1 Fairphones should be disposed of when their batteries expire is, quite simply, not good enough. I can understand that support will no longer be available, albeit that is in itself very disappointing, simply making the FP1 a disposable phone will do little to ensure a continued international following for a game changing product,
Come on Fairphone - you can do better that that.

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Lieber FP1 User,
ich schließe mich meinem Vorredner an und bin zutiefst enttäuscht, da diese Politik die publizierte und mich als Unterstützer gewinnende Strategie von Fairphone konterkariert ist. Von den 2 gekauften FP1U ist ein Batterie nun defekt und nach nur 3 Jahren Gebrauch muss in ein neues Smartphone investiert werden?
Das ist unbefriedigend, ärgerlich und enttäuschend - vor allem, da keine Alternativen für eine mögliche Weiternutzung nicht genannt wird.
Damit macht sich Fairphone keine Freunde oder Follower und das viel beschriebene Motto der Langlebigkeit, kein Elektroschrott zu produzieren und die vielen anderen Argumente sind für mich nur noch Worthülsen.
Sehr schade …

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If it would help I’m sure every Fairphoner would send 5-10€ to help Fairphone if they would keep supporting FP1, I guess it would help just to keep supporting for may be one or two years more.
With the extra money it should be able to find a factory for the FP1 screens and batteries.

I belive Fairphone does their best, but shall we not try to give a little bit more then 100%.
If we work together, i think that’s also the ideal of Fairphone, we can change thinks to positive.

:slight_smile:

Ben

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  1. Because it is outdated. It is stuck to Android 4.4, and cannot run the latest version of Android, 7.1. Being able to run the latest software is essential for longevity and sustainability. App developers will not support 4.4 forever.
  2. Producing the Fairphone 1 again would be a step backwards. The improvements with Fairphone 2 (modular architecture, own design instead of a licensed one) would be undone.
  3. How should you produce FP1 again if some parts for it are not available?
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Of course it makes no sense to produce a FP1 exactly with the same modules and same outdated Android 4.2 as before. It should be a re-design with new a mainboard, parts and with Android 6 or 7. FP1 had the right size for me - FP2 is too big.

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Dear Fairphone team,

This is to express my very deep disappointment for how the Fairphone concept finally ended. I am one of those who bought the first version of the cellphone and I just received a communication that the company is ending its maintenance. I strongly believe 3.5 years is not enough time to consider the end of a cellphone, and specially for a company that was meant to be different than the rest and defend the environment with a longer lasting device. It’s unacceptable that those who bought this first version are now asked to buy another one.

In addition, I need to mention that for these past years, I have had to buy the battery three times (once a year) because it doesn’t last for more than a year. Once again, a big failure against the initial concept of making a difference to preserve the environment.

I don’t see Fairphone differs much from the rest of the companies that produce cellphones in the world, so I regret to say I finally decided to no longer buy your products.

Albert.

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Hi Albert

Sorry to hear that.
Sometimes it’s like to bocking just unlook.
I do have FP2 without any problems, but even then I can imagen how you feel.

Fairphone is not just a phone, so we bought it with a emotion, we want to change the way people think. 3.5 years is nearly nothing, i have a iPhone 3g which still works.

I think if Fairphone want you to change to the FP2, which is not a bad ideal, they should make a damn good price.

Is there any one, who would spend some little money for the FP1-users, so they could buy a FP2 much cheaper?

I would pay 5€ more for a slimcase if i could Support a FP1-user.
Who else?

I feel so sorry, the FP1 buyers helped Fairphone but now Fairphone leave them alone, which is not fair (!)

Ben

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Apologies that I didn’t know about opening the forum (if I rember correctlty, the beta was closed at some point, and the beta-forum was only for participants). I will have a look at the AMA and your summary, and I just skimmed Bas’ post, which is nice and understandable (but still hasn’t much new information and numbers).

I still would have liked to get a much earlier warning from you in between annuncing “4.4 gonna come” and “not gonna happen”. You do have all our mailing adresses, and you used it as a push medium to tell us that support is ending. I came back to the forum only after the announcement, using it as a pull medium.

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…

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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

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