I know… getting Fairphone started is already a big undertaking… nevertheless I am so positively impressed by the idea of at least trying to make things better, that I want more of it.
How about extending the product range by adding a FairPad? - Maybe not tomorrow, but what about next year or so?
I am aware, that your current focus is on delivering the 2nd Batch and thinking about FP-2, but isn’t a FairPad worth a thought?
Giving digital citizens the chance to further support your initial idea? Having a social and environmental alternative?
That will of course have an impact on the software discussion as well - but would it not be a good thing?
This is a question that has been asked a couple of times in different forums and Fairphone have previously said that at the moment they are focusing on the single product - the Fairphone.
There is also this article on the Fairphone website which basically in a few words says there is more to be done yet to create a truly fair phone.
Updates on products will come via the website and in their newsletters, so keep your eyes open for them. Currently they are developing their plans for a new model of Fairphone in 2015 so they are definately not considering other products in the short term.
I do agree though that it would be great to have a FairTab
There’s a German start-up that is about to produce a “Phablet”, a thingy between a smartphone and a tablet, called Shift7. They claim to be willing to produce fairly to a certain extent, I haven’t studied their website though so I don’t know how serious this is. Might be worth having a look at: https://www.startnext.de/en/shift7.
I use my PC(s) for gaming and I highly doubt I’d be interested in a “fair PC”, because it will not be possible in a hundred years to have a fair gaming PC.
After buying the FP I also got the Fair Mouse from NagerIT, but in a lot of ways FP’s effort is way better. First they don’t have a community, and also the plastic keys broke very soon… Additionally (even if it is not that fair), in my opinion it would have been fairer for the Fair Mouse to use a wireless approach rather than the wire because I think this would extend its lifetime.
@Alfonso: Thanks for that! How can I order now that the crowdfunding period has ended?
@Stefan: Unless you’re talking about the Sandberg approach I doubt that using batteries is fairer. (For nature. I’ve never lost a mouse because of the cable and you can also replace it.)
Good question. I’m not involved in the project so I don’t really know; a superficial glance at the link I posted as well as their website did not reveal anything regarding your question. The website could be more informative, really. I suggest you just write the team; find ways to contact them on their website http://www.shiftphones.com/.
Btw, the producer announces the development of a new smartphone called Shift5. All in all, I have the feeling that they are nowhere near being as transparent (regarding all aspects of production) as the Fairphone team is, though.
It may be worth starting a new topic about fair products in general as this is definitely a conversation worth having with everyone - you can create a new topic directly from the right hand side of one of the posts by clicking ‘Reply as new Topic’
Thanks for the Information and the new thread.
I checked the “Startnext”-Pad, which is a valid Approach, but it is not as consequential fair as FairPhone, as far as I understood.
Furthermore, it is just 7 inch and a Phablet, not 10 or 12 as is preferable for a Tablet. It is a valid point, that of course somebody else could/should take care of a FairPad and this company concentrates on the FP - why not.
It is of course preferable to do one thing right instead of two things wrong… - nevertheless I would appreciate and support the idea of having these two products with a comparable design and a fair and sound software Basis - over which the discussion is ongoing as well.
As a happy fairphone-user for almost one year already, I’m hoping that someday when my ipad-battery is completely dead (it’s almost there), can’t there be a Fair-Pad?
From the last declarations in the Fairphone blog, they explicitely concentrate on the phone and not the tablet in 2015 (new model to come in 6 months, with more ‘internal’ design as they recruited an engineer for this, etc.)
There have been various discussion about dreams of a fair tablet in this forum, but this is not the direction things are taking at least for next year.
FWIW, you have a really original newcomer in the Tablet field, that while not Fair at all does feature an original commitment also much discussed here: an OS independent from Google. This is the Jolla tablet, announced just a couple of days ago.
Jolla started from the engineers from Nokia in Finland that originally developed the ancient Nokia unix phones, and they indeed developed a Jolla phone that shipped in extremely poor quantities (I think they built 600 while Fairphone started with their first 15000); I had a very serious look at them at the time because for me an independent OS was as important as fair procurement.
But I abandoned them when I discovered the app ecosystem in Jolla was just empty (this was one year ago -but not even a non-google email app for instance at the time).
This may have changed somehow by now as they announce an android emulator (but, for instance the Blackberry tabled also annouced an emulator and it definitely wasn’t a success).
Still, while once again the Jolla tablet is by no means a Fair procurement, you may be interested in participating with them. If they OS is successful in bringing apps in, I’ll definitely come in too, even though their announced specs at this moment are roughly twice lower than my Samsung galaxy note 10 as concerns processing power and battery capacity.
(edit) My comparison above with the Samsung appears unfair. Given the difference in screensize (and I think the screen is the biggest power user), if I relate the battery capacity to screen surface, the Jolla indeed sports better than the Samsung.
