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.
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.
Without knowing their business plan on things coming up next, I suggest to rethink your words. It might turn out that you are completely wrong…
Judging from the cost breakdown of the phones so far, their margin of revenue is rather small; not enough at least to lower the price by a relevant margin.
And I have my doubts. that cheaper production can be achieved by doing it on their own.
Most likely it’s the materials used and the labour costs in combination with low quantities, that are responsible for the price. Just my guess, of course.
So, maybe the cases are not for everyone.
But lowering the price just for increasing sales? Ain’t that the way Apple and Co are taking and the one that would make you work on the destruction of Fairphone?
I never said I was completely right.
Outsourcing is always more expensive unless you outsource to a place that is virtually a slave colony. You cannot tell the supplier to improve the efficiency of their production, you just agree or disagree.
I don’t get it. The practices are different. I WANT fairphone to go mainstream, that’s the whole point isn’t it? Just keep the ethics and improve, of course it’s not easy, we’re just voicing out our opinions.
I don’t care about being a shining paragon of virtue and an apologist for anyone, I just don’t want human species to suck and we suck so hard right now, we’re the bad guys.
I use the iphones as a weak example but I don’t care about their vision(they have none), their global share is only 23% and they’re slowly losing momentum, even in North America, but good guy Trump bailed them out from the clutches of Huawei.
Sorry to disagree.
If you will produce smaller quantities only, the investment for the production plant have to be taken into account. They are fixed costs, that will ad to the “per unit” costs. Producing millions in that regard is something totally different from producing 20,000 (if really 100,000 phones will be sold per year and they do offer different colors, they surely won’t sell much more of every color.
Are they? Regarding social responsibility and fair materials: yes; but selling high quantities with little margin is exactly the way this business works.
And if you demand low prices, the low margin alone will not do the trick.
The case seems to be good quality, I saw no complaints. And finding a good quality case for any phone for under 30€ is rare, and knowing the FP3 case is Fairtrade, 40€ is not particularly expensive. Over 50€ would be, but I find 40€ already quite reasonable. And if you complain about the price of he case, are you also complaining about the price of the phone?
Well… I don’t think so. Fairphone wants to start a movement, a momentum for Fairtrade an conflict-free materials. As someone said, Fairphone should become a label, not a brand. I don’t think becoming mainstream is the absolute goal of Fairphone. They certainly want to be known, but as @BertG said in another way, if this is to the detriment of their ethics, what’s the point? They already have a very low margin, and I agree with @BertG again, outsourcing won’t give a miraculous margin.
And then:
Same goes for the case…
(Btw., this debate has already been discussed, do we need it again?)
I’m happy to pay those amounts just for the knowledge of my phone and its accessories not funding warlords.
That’s why I bought those accessories.
I have a different approach: I am simply treating my FP3 very respectfully (like basically everything I own). My Fairphone is 9 months old now, has zero scratches, never fell down, looks like new, and it’s still a “FAIRPHONE” not a “FARPHONE”, “IPHONE” or something like that. 
I guess I don’t need a case, it would only be a visual accessory, so I am saving the resources.
Not true at all in my experience and I had many cases as I had many many phones. Reason I got myself a Fairphone because I realized my consumerist way of living and its effects, the unfairtrade. But I’m in minority, people like us are rare, you know it, I know it, that’s the issue!
You can live without a case, but not without a phone. In my view all phones are pretty much similar, the glaring differences are thickness and processing power, since neither interest me much, I chose the one that was modular, which is super rare, and ethical, and it was half the price of a flagship phone, if it’s the best and the latest doesn’t mean you need it, it’s just feels good to own expensive things, that’s us, human species.
Okay. Conversely what’s the point of ethics if you hide it in a cellar? You have to be able to sell to people their own future, because let’s be honest many don’t even understand what ethic and Fairtrade means all they look for is VALUE for MONEY.
Most of the time debates are shouting contests. Was it a good debate? If you will not give people an opportunity to express themselves verbally they will express themselves behind your back, with grenades, I like this quote because it’s true.
I agree, but I never said you should hide them in a cellar. In my opinion, the case isn’t that expensive, and what had interrogated me in your message was:
You cannot separate Fairphone from Fairtrade. Fairtrade is part of the high price, so why do you want to take it away. And by the way, who says that
I think the case is pretty good seeing the reports from other people.
You make a fair point. Mine almost 9 months old, not a scratch looks like new even though it fell out of my pocket on the second day of use. That is why I also do not wear a helmet when I cycle, it deters people from cycling and gives you and the motorists a false sense of safety, sorry I’m going on a tangent here but the safest way to cycle is to look as incompetent as possible, this way the motorists will sweat while overtaking you. Someone said the safest way to cycle is to imagine you are invisible to everyone, so that’s another way.
I’m just not being idealistic that’s all. Our interest lies in the people isn’t it, fairtrade is merely the by-product of sanity, and there’s very little sanity in people so how do we reach them?
I’m replying to the op, you’re replying to my reply, we’re having a conversation, voicing our opinions. I be me, and you be you?
Fair enough, but then the whole chain of production is inefficient and small companies are tossed aside by big players, maybe not at the beginning, I’m looking at Wileyfox. But what’s the end game then, how do they plan to expand the audience because they are entering aggressive currents. I don’t see how they will reach out to the cheapskates. Which means… they are facing a stage that is multilateral.
I would be interested to know how many cases were sold and how many were produced.
Well, not even global players are producing everything themselves.
There is a large industry of suppliers around almost every manufacturer of complicated products. This is most obvious for car manufacturing, where mirrors, seats, instruments … are done by specialised companies.
My guess would be, that they do so for efficiency reasons. 
In this thread a link was given to the “Fairphone Impact Report Vol. 2” which contained a cost breakdown of the FP3. Unfortunately this link points into void and I was not able to find the report elsewhere. Anyone able to find it?
Cheers!
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