I don’t know about you, but I find most FP3 accessories and some spare parts to be very expensive, especially these Disappointing privacy filter protective glass at 33€, the blue light filter at 30€ (when you can mostly turn the night mode on for this), the USB-C cable at 20€, the modular earplugs (they were 35€ then suddenly raised to 50€), the failing back cover with its falling letters (25€) and the pricey cases (40€): a full cost breakdown to explain the prices of the phone, its replacement parts and its accessories would be nice…
Otherwise I feel kind of cheated, especially when I see all the big discounts that are possible (free earplugs with the phone, 20€ discount for protective case + glass bought together)…
I know Fairphone is a small social company and I’m willing to pay a bit more for that, but I’d be dissapointed if they ended up like Apple regarding the price of their accessories… To be a brand only quite rich people can buy accessories from… You’ll probably say I’m exaggerating, but this is how I feel…
Fully agree on that, especially the back cover and the cases are way overpriced from my feeling. I am also happy to pay more for supporting small companies with sustainable approaches, but 40,- for a case? I guess I waive that.
I agree with you mate, I like the idea, the brand and the products but they are too expensive. The phone is, and so are its accesories. As you said, it is a social company and we now they have to survive but man…
I sort of agree with you, but let’s not forget that the FP2 was also expensive, and didn’t come with any accessories, just like the FP3 (the FP3 is even cheaper than the FP2). Fairphone created many accessories, but you don’t have to buy them. Before, you had to buy them trough other companies, and so they were cheaper. Yes they’re expensive, but as @urs_lesse said, it’s the price of fairtrade, and, I would hope good quality.
For this last point I understand that you would like perfectly working and reliable accessories, but, well, Fairphone tries its best.
And for the discounts, I find this a bit much as well, but I had my answer about this subject.
Nothing is perfect, choose what is best for you. You may not like some accessories, but others may find them very good.
And if you want Fairphone to know about it, tell them (if you didn’t already do it).
(I know my message doesn’t seem very natural nor structured, sorry, I wrote how it came )
Not sure if I would see it that black/white. For me the point with all fairtrade products is, that the additional cost must appear to be somehow “realistic”, within a comprehensible range. For the FP3 itself this is very true for me. For a 40,- case it is not, because I would assume (but of course I don’t know) that the pure production cost (without any fairtrade extra) is <1,-. If you add the fairtrade component, shipping, product development, marketing etc. etc. plus a good amount for Fairphone itself of course (they have to live from something too), then I am still far away from 40,-.
I guess that’s exactly what @Antoine meant above: Some transparency in form of a cost breakdown would be really helpful.
I agree, that the discounts really seem in contradiction to the general pricing.
Still:
The discounts obviously are meant to attract more people to Fairphone and they are for a limited time period only. So, this is OK by me. And it is like buying something just to find out the next week, that the price was dropped and a new, enhanced model is available.
I agree as well, that I would love to get a cost breakdown.
Though, doing some calculation by myself, I am not too surprised by the prices.
In my opinion, the big difference in prices to the large companies is due to 2 factors.
Quantity and social irresponisibility.
Quantity: (Just one point) For every accessory or spare part like a cover the manufacturer has to make / adjust the machines, forms etc. That is a fixed cost-factor, no matter how many parts are produced (up to the point, the moulds have to be replaced). Producing just a few thousand units makes this an important part of the prices.
Social irresponsibility: Paying low wages and increasing working hours is reducing labour costs twofold.
Using eco-friendly materials most likely will add to the price as well, so it makes phones cheaper to not worry about such things.
But we are sooo used to discounts, deals, tiny prices, cheap goods, …, how ever you name it, that this seems natural and the way it has to be.
Well, in my opinion, it’s not. Coffee, chocolate, bananas, electronics etc. are luxury goods, however much we are used to having them around all the time at low prices.
Adjusting consumerism - and paying fair prices can help in that regard - is essential. But that belongs in the thread about Fairphone 2030, I guess.
@formerFP.Com.Manager it would be great if you could ask the responsible people if and when there will be a cost breakdown for the FP3 and its accessories.
There was one for the FP1 and FP2 and not creating one for the FP3 would, in my opinion, be a huge step backwards in terms of transparency and will definitely lower my trust in the company. Especially in combination with the Apple-like strategy of not communicating the making of the FP3 a year ago and then making a huge press statement, instead of letting everyone have a look at a transparent development process.
And not to forget the xx,99€-prices and the many sales and promotions.
For me it seems like FP is drifting away from some of their former core values.
I would not be so harsh about it.
The FP3 is no more expensive than the FP2, so it’s not smelling exactly fishy.
Thoug I really would like to see a cost-breakdown as well, this does not rank top in my list. Straightening updates and support out seems way more important to me.
And in my opinion they are - finally - aiming at the mass market, meaning, they have to be more competative. And their target consumers are no longer the freaks, geeks and eco-warriors ( sorry, just a poor exaggeration by me), but those, that are looking for bargains, that can be convinced to buy by getting some extra etc.
To me, this marketing strategy is logical and consistent and I see no violation of their core-values.
Fairphone is no feel-good product for some people, but meant to be a game-changer/market-changer and therefore has to act accordingly (still: NOT abandoning or betraying any of their core values, that are - to me - social and ecological responsibility).
I am really curious:
What do you and others consider to be core values?
From what I know of Fairphone, and from my impression, I would say Fairtrade, Modularity, Changing the Industry, Transparency. I think @Stanzi was talking about last one (or something similar).
And if you ask the question about why Transparency as a core value, because this is part of being a fairtrade product. They are able to tell where every part comes from, how the employees are paid, etc. They did it. For me they aren’t yet really drifting away from any of their core values, but they are becoming a bigger company and they have to change their way of doing, as you said @BertG. I’m nevertheless waiting to see whether they will explain better some of their choices that really aren’t clear, and for this I agree with @Stanzi.
One of them definitely is transparency, therefore I agree with what @Alex.A said. And the developnent of both the FP1 and the FP2 were much more transparent than the one of the FP3.
To overexaggerate a little, I could say “How can I trust Fairphone anymore if I can’t look into the development process and the change that they’re making like I used to be able to? Why does Fairphone hide the hard money numbers from us, when they were happy to share them for the last two phones?”
I think that if you want to change something, you have to prove what you’re doing, and making the development and financial processes transparent is one of the key steps there.
Even a flat-earther would say “I can prove it’s not round!”, so a company that is trying to improve an entire industry sector should do the same.
Right now I don’t have enough time for a long-winded reply but I still want to add one perspective: it was a strategic decision to transition from start-up to growth (see e.g. https://www.fairphone.com/de/2018/10/17/from-founder-leadership-to-growth-leadership/) so I’d expect at least some change wrt. the early days. Let’s not forget that the amount of FP1 and FP2 sold in 5 years is equivalent of what the overall smartphone industry sells in 2 hours. I don’t believe you can have much impact with that.
Coming back to the “some change” thing: no, I wouldn’t be fine without a cost breakdown of the FP3, but I’m willing to give them time. Meanwhile I appreciate a lot that they managed to create a new model that I can finally recommend without a lot of "but"s (“but the battery life is poor”, “but you must be willing to endure the odd random reboot every now and then”, “but you can’t treat it like normal phones as the modularity greatly reduces the robustness”). Ok, there is one “but” with the FP3 at the moment for me: I’d like to see monthly security updates (for customers of all networks).
I don’t want many different cases because of my “mood” I want many different cases because I need many different fairphones – one for me, one for my wife, one each for the children…
If they all look the same people keep picking up other peoples phones, which leads to annoyance and confusion.
(Actually, until they all wear out most of my fleet is still sticking on Fairphone 2’s for the moment. All different colours of course).
I wonder how people did before Fairphone makes offial cases? FYI, there are plenty of possibilities to equip all your family with non official cases. And it is true for the other accessories that many find pricey.
Quite honestly, this thread was very interesting to read. I appreciate the time you all took to share your thoughts. Also thanks to @Stanzi for tagging me. Admittedly, it has taken me longer to return to this thread than I anticipated. That said, an update I can provide right now, is that I have already shared this with my colleagues in the commercial department and the comments in this thread have been well noted. When I have more concrete information I will share it with you all.
In the meantime, however, I would like to give you all a little heads up, and this corresponds to the comments above regarding Fairphone values and transparency. Tomorrow, we will be sharing our latest Impact Report on all our social channels and our website. This report “looks at the impact, positive and negative, that our product has on the world”. It will also include the life cycle assessment of the Fairphone 3. I highly recommend you all have a look at this.
The price of a case is definitely not attractive to most, fairtrade or not, cheap child labour or not, if it does not work it does not work. They either have to organize their own manufacturing to drop the costs of outsourcing or drop the price and have much less revenue.
Unlikely but if Fairphone shall turn into an inhuman profit-oriented corporation like Apple I will make it my personal mission to contribute to their destruction.
It seems that you have mixed “Apples” with pears. Most people are used to low prices of mass and “unfairly” manufactured products. “Fairly” produced goods demand higher expenses, and Fairphone certainly will not get rich at the expenses of their customers, if that is what you mean. As you can see in the graph above, the quantities of Fairphones sold are just a fraction of those from big players in the industry.
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