OK - my iPhone 4s has finally quit, so I need a new phone. Sustainability is a top requirement, so I’m attracted to Fairphone.
I’m not a demanding user, but my instinct is to want up-to-date hardware so that my purchase will stay relevant for longer. That the FP2 hardware is 2.5 years old does niggle at me. Should I wait for FP3 etc.
So, I see that I am now applying a market force on the Supplier to make regular hardware updates, and so perpetuate the non-sustainable cycle of producing new products.
Arghhh!!
I notice in the current Fairphone fund raising, that the 2.5 million target is to move towards developing Fairphone as a service rather than a device we own.
There is a game changing idea!
If I was buying a phone service, I would not care about the model. The only thing that would be important is that is has a shiny cover and it delivers the service I need today.
- If the service fails, the Supplier fixes it
- If I need a more advanced service, I upgrade the service.
Since I don’t own the product, I do not have to build margin into my purchase for possible future services that I may or may not ever need.
Also, if a company is selling a service, they are motivated to extract the maximum value out of their product. So they would try to achieve high reliability and good maintainability out of the products that they own.
But, wait a minute. Is this not the approach we have when we get a phone as part of our monthly subscription to a telecommunications provider? And that generally sucks.