A software update everybody is going to get at the end is not something that matches with the sentence “[…] people to buy now and then be disappointed that they didn’t wait a few days”.
So I bet it’s something that has to do with the FP2’s hardware/modules/case, not the software.
Agree.
Maybe the update will require a factory reset? Who would want to wipe a phone you just got and spent hours setting up?
I agree that stopping shipping makes more sense if a hardware change is imminent, but don’t you think that some information would have leaked if they would be working on a major hardware change? And I seriously don’t think a new back cover or something like this qualifies as “something exciting”.
But of course this is all just wild speculation - caused, again, by lack of proper information.
Never, ever. Even the HTC Dream (i.e. the first comercial Android device) received updates without the need of a factory reset. User data is always stored in a separated partition for that purpose.
A software update is always backwards compatible. At least, when no hardware piece has been changed.
Edit: What about a new chipset that’ll be supported by Android 7 codebase? (MSM8975 isn’t, as marvellously explained in this other topic). They maybe have studied the case of a Fairphone OS Marshmallow update supporting both SoCs. This is mere speculation, though.
It’s now possible to pre-order the FP2 and according to the shop it will be delivered after december 16th:
“Fairphone 2 orders will be delivered by 16 December. All other orders will be processed one business day after your payment is confirmed. Delivery date depends on your chosen delivery method.”
Actually, this wording means that it will be delivered not later than 16th December and possibly a while before this date.
Hey @maik, thank you for your feedback and your involvement in the Fairphone forum.
I really appreciate that you take the time to write down your ideas and worries and I hope we can use them to improve our work. Let me try to reply to some of the things you say and hopefully this will clarify some of the decisions we make.
Being a small company really has disadvantages. In hindsight it is easy to see what could have gone better. I think the decisions made (FP1 chipset) or problems encountered (delivery problems) have all been very well explained and documented on several occasions.
What happened last 2 weeks was that we we’re not 100% sure when we would be able to show the new covers (pictures were finished the day before launch!), but we also didn’t want people to buy a Fairphone 2 with the old cover and make them unhappy when the new one was launched.
Therefor we decided to make it into ‘temporarily unavailable’ and ‘subscribe to the newsletter to be warned when it is available again’
We do hope that there is more to Fairphone then our shop. And now with the new cases in place and the shop open again for pre-orders, we also hope that our teams resources can be spend on good support and digging into our value-chain even deeper.
No, we will not do this. It does happen from time to time that a module is temporary unavailable, but we’ve learned valuable lessons from the Fairphone 1 and are now able to keep on supplying Fairphone 2 parts for a long long time.
We hope our customers are happy we are delivering upon our promise of modularity, by upgrading the case. The first in, hopefully, a series of upgrades. You could also say that to buy fair sometimes means that things are not the same as you’re used to in a end-user and linear economy.
Duly noted; front page has been updated 
Sorry for my delayed reply: I was hiking in the northern part of France and without phone for several days. And my campfire making skills are to good to use smoke signals
By the way, also note the paragraph on the blog about the short closure of the shop:
Why do you have to wait?
While our new cases are being produced, we took the opportunity from September to optimize the production, and phase in some improvements based on the learnings of the last couple of months of production, to further improve on yields.For that purpose we temporarily stopped the assembly lines, in order to cleanly optimize the processes and the line design. We also engaged with suppliers to adjust their own processes and materials.
Thanks for replying to my little rant, @Douwe. I just think, that sometimes FP is giving itself a hard time when it could be so much easier.
The company FP represents a set of ideas, and the handheld is just the vehicle to convey these ideas. So, yes, [quote=“Douwe, post:28, topic:22666”]
there is more to Fairphone then our shop
[/quote]
Therefore of course it would be helpful to sell a smoothly running device from a smoothly running shop. And in case something is bumpy then there should be a smooth information flow to the (potential) customers.
What matters are two things:
Of course at FP you guys know about your ways - but out here, we only have the website (in case we aren’t member of that big social media monster).
Imagine you had told a friend on the phone, that you at FP are going to shut down the shop. And then hanging up without further explanation. I think, that sounds at least a little weird. Why not providing a realistic time frame for reopening? Why not explaing the reason - just look at the furor this shop closing has caused here in the forum. New covers had been a surprise even when you had talked about them before shop closing - but FP had not risked to shy away new potential customers and irritate owners. My colleague at work now has probably some “funny little unreliable company” sticker in his head - unless I go to him and set things straight.
Btw…that happy customer counter on the mainpage hasn’t changed in a while. For a reason? (hopefully not just no more devices sold) Then please present the reason or remove the counter. Whereever something makes the impression that it is supposed to behave in a certain way but it actually doesn’t it reduces credibility.
Also I think it makes sense, to put information always in the area where it is needed. Often there is information, but it is hidden deep in the blog/forum.
People being irritated by shop closure probably would click a link directly at the shop page - but do they go to the blog? Make it easy for them (and it would not even be that much effort).
Other than that:
Nice . Especially the “without phone” part.
(hopefully I haven’t digressed too much)
I bought a FP2 in the first preorder, and I waited some 4 months to get it; luckly I had my (very) old phone working so I symply waited to upgrade to an old-fashioned cell to a smartphone…then I was very unlike as I was stolen my wondeful FP2 after only few month of use. I was so satisfied about it that I decided to buy a new one, which I could do because at that time it took only a couple of weeks to get it (in the few months I start useing a number of smartphone features I was hardly to stay without…). My good experience was making my daughter to wish a FP2 also, so I was going to buy it as a gift for Xmas…and you’re going to stop production and delivery in this time…why? (and it seems her smartphone is going to dye, so she need a new one as soon as possible 
).
If one is not so interested in the new back cover, would it be possible to have just a working FP2 instead of needing to give money for an unfair smartphone?
With a lot of love 
Paola
According to their blog it’s because of improvements to the production line (this nearly reads as if there were some quality assurance issues that needed to be solved):
Why do you have to wait? While our new cases are being produced, we took the opportunity from September to optimize the production, and phase in some improvements based on the learnings of the last couple of months of production, to further improve on yields.
For that purpose we temporarily stopped the assembly lines, in order to cleanly optimize the processes and the line design. We also engaged with suppliers to adjust their own processes and materials.
And in addition, they sold out of the batch that is to be delivered in time for Christmas quicker than they thought.
This means that what’s stopping delivery isn’t just the cover - production of the internals is being tweaked as well.
There’s two alternatives that do involve getting a Fairphone that I can think of (and I realise neither is perfect)
Or… I think there are some distributors with Fairphones in stock.
In Switzerland there is Digitec as far as I know…
But other country’s I don’t know.
I had to buy a FP2 in a hurry some months ago (when FP delivery was
still veeeery slow) and I ended up buying through memo.de.
It’s a german website selling (also) FairPhones. The website is in
german, but they delivery to many European countries within a few days.
Delivery to Italy was smooth, I could pay with a bank transfer from my italian bank account.
I hope this helps!
Also:
In the Netherlands at KPN
In England at The Phone Co-op
In Sweden at ETC Mobil
In Austria at T-Mobile Austria
You have to look around because it could be available at other phone companies.
Like someone in a galaxy far away a long time ago said: “I want that phone, not excuses!”
I ordered a FP2 around christmas, it said it would ship before January 31. but now I’m doubting my sanity because it says May 31. in my email (while I´m sure it said January on the website when I ordered!! - I quadruple checked at the time since obviously it was important information).
Anyway, nevermind that, what I don’t understand and didn’t know is that the FP2 had already been released and I am waiting for some sort of rerelease? for six months?!
Needless to say I am starting to have serious doubts about the efficacy of this company! Sadly an alternative relatively open hardware phone doesn’t exist (afaik) so I’m stuck with waiting till May…
Hindsight: I knew that website looked too sugary and fake to trust, why can’t you just provide solid information in one place without all these layers of indirection?! Aren’t you supposed to be an open social enterprise??
Ideologically I am 100% for what you seem to be trying to do, so if you manage to deliver a working product that is OS agnostic I will forgive any and all agony caused by the process of acquiring it. However if you (as I’m starting to suspect) are not doing a proper job, then you are causing so much collateral damage to the reputation of future 'fair’phones that I get physically sick thinking about it.
You have a big responsibility, please handle it with care.
As this is a forum for Fairphone users, you will not get an answer from the Fairphone office.
Please submit a request to get in contact with Fairphone.