This is the place for it. It’s not out of the blue. It’s an open discussion. I don’t go to newspapers with my statement. In your logic only whistleblowers can leak planned obsolescence.
Is it possible to ignore a contributor here ? I don’t appreciate trolls…
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I don’t think that @ben_brln is a troll, but someone who is obviously very frustrated about some part of his experience with his device. That said, I don’t agree at all with the statement that Fairphone deliberately tries to make their products unusable. But of course there are issues and we’re discussing them here on the forum.
At some point when the arguments are exchanged and no real progress can be seen changing anyone’s mind, it might be best to just stop engaging in this topic. I honestly don’t see any more where this should lead now.
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@RickJ0
I like your post, but this is not completely true, I run debian (the mother/father of ubuntu) on much pc but years ago they have killed the ppc hardware support (since the wasn’t people that make package for ppc structure), so my ibook G4 run old version with old kernel, my radeon card on onother laptop have recently moved to amber the radeon R200 open source support (since there is not developer that work on it) and is too old (opengl 1.3/1.4).
This is about open source, on closed source you cannot use proprietary driver with newer kernel… every 3 max 10 years.
On mobile most of the driver are closed source.
If you cannot use newer linux kernel is difficult/impossible use newer android.
Honestly I’m repetitive, but we need to ask FP more mainline support.
the FP2 had more than 7 years of software support with several really difficult Android upgrades without Qualcomm support and only possible with community developer support and they just announced to provide updates for the FP5 for 8 years (from launch)… so yes that really sounds like a company who uses planned obsolescence…Oh and wait they now maintain 2 Android Versions for the FP3 which needs more resources, money etc, so clearly another indicator for planned obsolescence.
I think you are bit too deep into finding something, so you find something where nothing is…
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Yes, it’s possible, see here …
(Just answering the question about a forum feature.)
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There is planned obsolescence for the Fairphone 5. Five years warranty and eight years of Android updates, leading to a maximum safe life of about a decade.
Given the nature of chip and software development, by 2033 the main board and in particular the CPU will be so out-of-date as to be unusable for new features.
The phone I’m replacing with a Fairphone 5 was a flagship. Expensive and only got three years of Android updates before being declared obsolescent.
There’s nothing much wrong with it after nearly four years, except that the lack of updates means I may be at risk of unknown or known security flaws fixed in later security patches or Android releases.
I haven’t got the 5 yet of course, so we’ll see how it goes when it arrives, but I think it’s a bit rich to knock Fairphone with allegations of short obsolescence cycles when the competitors last just three years to Fairphone’s seven to ten.
Maybe the next Fairphone will allow replacement of the CPU as well, but that’s unlikely as probably half the cost of building the phone is in the main board. So it’s unlikely many customers would stump up the cost of a new board - probably costing more than a new phone after five years or so.
Hardware obsolescence is a feature of Moore’s Law, which says CPU capability will double every two years. Proposed in the 1960’s it’s held true ever since, but is thought to be near to coming to an end with physics limits as integrated circuit lithography reaches down to 5 nanometers. So it’ll be interesting to see what effect the end of Moore’s Law has on phone obsolescence.
It seems to me unlikely progress to yet more powerful units will simply stop though. Maybe the Fairphone 10 will aim for 20 years or lifetime support? 
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And how do you account for the faster compute power? Data lanes on the SoC will still have the same speed. The memory lanes and caches as well. Furthermore, the CPU must also fit in that socket, so how would a CPU 10 years from now fit? Form factors change because of profit reasons, but also due to technical reasons.
I think Fairphone is already really pushing it to the limit with the FP5. Of course things may always improve, but let’s not be too critical here. Maybe bash Apple, Samsung and Google for not doing what Fairphone does in the meantime? Fairphone is just one player in the market. To have a big impact it would help if what Fairphone does becomes mainstream. That has more influence than replacing that CPU, which is really not that easy.
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You are right, FP is an exceptional company compared to other competitors. Product-lifetime doesn’t necessarily mean to have the newest updates. I can live with a transparent no-more-update policy after some years due to hardware restrictions (and in best case offer an alternative for those users like another OS), but to roll out an OS which makes the device not working is sth. very suspicious and breaks with expectations.
But - after hearing all your arguments I agree that it’s unlikely that FP uses planned obsolescence, but this update needs to be resolved to a stable state to clear last doubts.
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No, but claiming that Fairphone use planned obsolescence is a conspiracy theory.
And a vile libel.
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In any reasonable online (or other) community the first rule should be “assume good faith”. You broke that rule with your post. You make libelous claims about the behavior of Fairphone.
If you want to complain about the quality of the FP3 android release, feel free. If you want to claim that Fairphone are acting in bad faith you’d better have some evidence.
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Oh boy…I feel like in a loophole.
Did you read the posts in this thread?
I guess not.
- This is a thesis
- It’s not baseless, this update has good evidential quality, but is no proof and got weakened by people who can still use it (which I did not know from the beginning) and might get discarded when FP releases an update so FP3 users can use their device again
won’t give any more thrust into this
The term “planned” implies bad intentions. More appropriate terms could be “expected obsolescence” or “unavoidable obsolescence”.
We all agree that the obsolescence is built-in into the ecosystem that we now have. Some actors are trying to curb that, but they have limited power.
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The thread is about planned obsolescence, not unavoidable obsolescence. Most people think it’s with malicious intentions and the name suggests so, but it can be also be driven by carelessness (not an accident as this case seems to be, but a continious carelessness to abandon a product so to say).
Again - it’s a thesis, not a fact. I get the impression you talk about the outcome, the conclusion of the discussion to you. As I stated before I tend to this conclusion too, but not yet - first I want to see this update fixed.
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You gave the word the negative definition, so no not 2 ways to interpret.
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?
Is this a strawman-fallacy ?
Are you asking yourself?
Else you might want to read again
So you clearly defined the malicious intention from the beginning and you still do.
A fact would come with evidence, this thesis you phrased is just
Edit: you brought this up, so stand to it, and dont try to tell us something different was meant. You have this opinion, thats fine, you get feedback, think about it and decide if you change your mind or want to go with your thesis. No need to try to get an agreement.
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I stand to it, but I can’t see your point. Where are two ways to interpret this?
I clearly stated from the beginning
"Planned obsolesence can be “malicious/by intention” or “careless”. At least the last point is true, because this update has not been tested if it works for the FP3 smoothly. "
And if you read the whole context I state several times, that this doesn’t mean “accidental”, but continuuos carelessness towards a certain product.
This is nonsense.
If it’s careless it’s not planned.
define: planned
plan
/plan/
verb
past tense: planned; past participle: planned
- decide on and make arrangements for in advance.
“they were planning a trip to Egypt”
define: careless.
careless
/ˈkɛːləs/
adjective
adjective: careless
- not giving sufficient attention or thought to avoiding harm or errors.
“she had been careless and had left the window unlocked”
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I 
semantic discussions! 