🇬🇧 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 Interesting links / news articles somehow related to FP (collection)

I have read that article and it’s not so critical as the headline suggests. Conclusion is somewhat that a Fairphone is only better for the environment if the user does not replace it for several years (who would’ve thought that… :upside_down_face:)
The article was published long before the upgrade to Android 6 on FP - and it’s mostly missing upgrades that drive otherwise content users to abandon their old phones. Hence a lot skepticism on how long FP2 would be used.

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“Cobalt prices have more than doubled in the past year”

“The company also wants to adopt nickel-cobalt-aluminum oxide batteries for electric cars, reflecting the trend in which carmakers gradually move to batteries that use less cobalt.”

Another reason to recycle your old smartphone(s).

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(Dec 2017)

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@Stefan

Hm, very strange that I just shortly read about something similar going on in conventional computer business. “https://www.fsf.org/blogs/sysadmin/the-management-engine-an-attack-on-computer-users-freedom

Also many tv set owners are facing some restrictions (on free tv) as well. The majority still believes the difference between HD+ to HD is only image size which is wrong. The difference still holds little known facts. The “+” also introduces the ability for the tv station to take control of your receiver (no matter if dedicated or build in).

I am afraid the fun time of using silicon powered gadgets is going to end.

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Short editorial comment from the Südwind-Magazin November 2017. Summary in English:

Is it so sustainable having to send masses of displays etc. from Amsterdam around the world? Fairphone should not only work on producing their phone ethically, but also on it being in working order.


Info graphic from the Südwind Magazin February 2018. Short summary in English:

  • Silver: 0.16% share in a mobile phone → 0.022% share in the ore → 10.9kg silver ore needed for one phone.
  • Gold: 0.024% share in a mobile phone → 0.0004% share in the ore → 900*kg gold ore needed for one phone.
  • price of a mobile phone: 200-1000€ → monthly income of a Chinese factory worker: 300€
  • In 2017 Austrians own 20,000,000 phones (population Jan 2018: ~8.8 million). In those phones there are 500 kg gold. 125,000,000 kg gold ore had to be extracted to produce those phones.

Here you can find the individual slides in German.

* Correction in April issue of SWM

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Concerning the argument, that Fairphhone has to send so many displays around the world, because they are lacking in quality:
Global players selling millions of phones a year have the means for a thorough quality control. I guess we never will know, how many displays (and other parts) are ending on a dump that way for not meeting the quality standard.
With Fairphone, needing relatively small batches of parts, I would guess, that a lot of the quality control happens at the customer.
Therefore: What’s visible with Fairphone happens behind closed doors and far away in cineses factories with every smartphone model.

Add the revolutionary new modular concept to this and here we are.

I would expect to get better parts quality with every new batch. If I have the right impression, that’s already the case with the 2nd batch displays compared to the original ones. :wink:

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Just was browsing the Greenpeace Shop in Germany.
They do sell the Waka Waka Power+ solar powerbank.
And if you scroll through the pictures … pic number 5 shows it charging a Fairphone 2 (tourquoise).:smiley:

Edit: Of course it’s placed on the display, so the “Fairphone” writing is clearly visible. :sunglasses:

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Also the article does miss the tiny fact that parts are mainly send within the EU as this is the core market and not worldwide as major manufacturers does.

Furthermore I think FP does better here with its modular design as it may send spare parts out once, sometimes expecting the broken part to be disposed (recycled) properly.
Other brands need sending the entire phone to a repair center first and returning again afterwards.

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:de: Germanwatch vergleicht Fairphone 2, Shiftphone 5.3, iPhone X und Samsung Galaxy S8 in sozialer und ökologischer Hinsicht, inbesondere mit Blick auf Reparierbarkeit.

http://germanwatch.org/de/15066

Der Artikel ist unter der großen Grafik als PDF-Download (kostenlos) zu finden.

:gb: NGO Germanwatch has compared the FP2, the Shiftphone 5.3, the iPhone X and the Samsung Galaxy S8 with regard to social and ecologial aspects, especially repairability. Article in German only, includes a detailed comparison table though. Free PDF download below the big picture.

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:de: Der WDR hat für seine Sendereihe Leonardo die Nachhaltigkeit von Smartphones im Jahre 2018 untersucht und ob dies ein Thema für die Fachmesse MWC war. Fairphone wurde dabei mehrfach positiv hervorgehoben, es wurde aber auch festgestellt, dass das nachhaltigste Smartphone das ist, was man besonders lange benutzt.

:uk: The german news broadcasting service WDR 5 has analyzed the interest of the hardware vendors in sustainability of their devices on the trade fair MWC (mobile world congress) in Barcelona a few weeks ago. They have referred to Fairphone several times, but also mentioned that the most sustainable smartphone is the phone you keep using for the longest time.

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:de: In der taz von heute 20.03.2018

Das Vorbild ist das Fair Phone, das so weit wie möglich nach ökologischen und sozialen Kriterien hergestellte Smartphone. Ökologisch und fair soll es auch bei der Produktion von Stromzählern gehen, meint die niederländische Initiative „Fair Smart Meter“.

:uk: An article in the German daily “taz

Example is the Fair Phone, the smartphone, that is - as much as possible - produced according to ecological and social criteria. The production of electricity meters shall be ecological and fair as well. That’s the opinion of the dutch initiative “Fair Smart Meter”

The homepage of this initiative can be found here:
https://www.fairsmartmeter.com/

Interestingly they have developed a fair performance ladder with the following target:

We are hoping to develop a system that can compare a specific product on fairness and can be used to track improvements of a particular supplier. In doing so we hope to make the performance ladder a standard in the procurement processes, not only for the meter, not even only for electronics, but for any of the assets we use in our infrastructure.

The Netherlands seem to be on the forefront of development once again. :smile:

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This is indeed conspicuous…:wink: and we need more fairness.

But I am more concerned about those so called “intelligent meters” replacing conventional meters already as the majority does not measure as exact as their outdated predecessors. Very strange that this works rather beneficial for the suppliers than for the customers as it often stated to be a further step towards smarter power grids and actually should save customers some money. Maybe being a supplier or a customer was mixed up at last :face_with_raised_eyebrow:

Studie: Smart Meter messen falsch, Kunden zahlen

Also some of them were glued together quick and dirty catching on fire causing major damage.

Due to convenient wireless distant reading options many also expose strong radiation as if they were a radio antenna.

I am a bit irritated that things does not seem to become better as this change is going on since about 2009.

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The false readings of meters are a consequence of digital meters measuring with a limited frequency, meaning short peaks of usage are incorrectly interpreted. It’s not limited to smart meters either, non-smart meters are also digital nowadays. I’m not sure whether analog meters are still manufactured.

When my mother’s house got solar panels years ago (EDIT: 2009), the meter was switched to a digital one - likely it has the same problems but it is in no way ‘smart’.

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I saw this and I thought, What about the age of the Fairphone??
UNStudio launches tech startup to drag architecture into “the age of the iPhone”

Here is a German article speculating about how Fairphone now finally manages to do an Android 7 upgrade when earlier it seemed impossible because the Snapdragon 801 SoC does not match all requirements.

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Thanks for the link. Again a lot of curiosity about how FP did manage to…and how did it manage to…let alone ridiculous comments.

Although FP is better known since few years still there are many out there not knowing much about whatś it all about.

Maybe FP used some kind of magic on Google, who knows at last. :wink:
They started with Lollipop, moved to Marshmallow, now there should come Nougat all on the same platform. Again I am confident they will meet their goal. But some skeptical unable to be convinced will remain anyway.
One thing I am still a bit confused about, questions about what for pay such a high price just because having something “fair”…
The answer is given in the question already, but some just don’t get it.
There are people who can and want to afford fair products and others who cannot or don’t want to. It is that simple. No matter of higher intellect, knowledge or whatever.
I for my self did not get it how come someone fills his drawer with barely used phones purchasing new ones on a regular basis but complaining about the low pay from his employer at the same time…

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See the topic I started: The Green Lie: Greenwashing and what to do about it

I still think the decision shouldn’t be up to consumers. There should be no unfair smartphones and then, since every phone is fair, you wouldn’t pay extra for fairness.

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But it would make phones more expensive for everyone.
Which of course would be the real price, including the social and environmental factor that usually tends to be not taken account for.

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Yes, I followed it too and yes I also think there should be more regulation by governments. On the other hand we in Germany have something called “economic autonomy” which other developed countries probably also have in a way. So how much influence would do good and when will it rather cause (damage) or take too much responsibility from the management.

But looking at e.g. the diesel-gate we also could be witness of how “economic autonomy” can go fataly wrong.

Yes, I agree. Unfortunately as I can see here in Germany more and more responsibility is left to “the customer”. If there is a discussion going on often it is stated by government spokesmen that it´s up to the customers decision so he may take influence in market developments. Fine, but that´s not a general solution for all issues as can be watched and it’s not what for we have politicians after all.

@BertG

Yes true. Since several years we have offers to have a new phone for 0€ or 1€ for a contract extension or new contract or a high class model for much lower than the real price. Dealers could never catch me, but I always thought this is a negative development. And now signs become clearer that it is one among other developments turning out to massively grow the dump pile and even has a stronger negative multi-impact.
Actually FP2 is my second new mobile within 25 years.
First Nokia 6150 (>500.- DM) with the shortest possible contract at O² (formerly Viag Intercom with it´s unique “home zome”) of only 3 months to see if the mobile technique is even working and worth paying money for. Now FP2, you know the price.
But receiving a new phone for an apple and a egg
of course pushes many users to give in and snatch it being in need of it or not.
But for whatever reason many used phones are often not sold second-hand but rott in a drawer, maybe for sentimental reasons or whatever.

I think mobiles would be treated with more care and value if they were (much) more expensive. Draining them in the toilet or simply dropping them would hurt much more and users probably would try harder to prevent this.

But relating to Stefans thread about Greenwashing governments should surely take influence on pricing.

Simply compare the cost break-down of FP and imagine how it may look at Apple or Samsung.
In the 90’s there was an overall win of maybe 1%-100% per unit of whatever was sold. But today?? 100% win still seems not to be enough per unit. There must be 500%, 1000%, no problem - the sky is the limit. Buy or die.
But look who’s actually doing the job - the managers, shareholders? Surely not! Maybe the poor souls at
Foxconn or diggers in third-world countries.
So this is where governments should take more control into the market to regulate a better balance between wins, costs of raw materials, salaries, sales prices, social values etc. and also force companies to take over more responsibility for the full live cycle of their products - not sell and forget or leave the (uncomfortable) rest to the customers.

https://forum.fairphone.com/t/the-green-lie-greenwashing-and-what-to-do-about-it/39476/7

That’s the point. FPs cost breakdown is available to the public. I believe there are not many companies revealing such and if they do…how truthfull may it be??
There is a lot of cheating going on. Just imagine for youself, how would it look like to see a product is being sold with >500% win per unit?
Would it look good in a breakdown to see the raw materials are only (a simple guess) 1% and salaries for manufacturing maybe 7%?
The price barrier of >$1000 for a new smartphone was broken by Apple.

I have doubts it is a complete new design from scratch legitimating this price.
So, it should clearly point out who actually makes his cut just as one sentence states “Investors should buy Apple shares because the more expensive iPhone 8 launching later this year will drive earnings above expectations”.

This price should include a noticable percentage of

and governments should have a close eye on it so they are actually fulfilled.

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Just found this, an open hardware Android phone: https://hackaday.io/project/42944-kite-open-hardware-android-smartphone

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