Dear Laura,
first of all, I am afraid, I honestly can’t answer that question for you, as trust is a very personal thing.
But I can tell you, that I still do trust Faiphone, although I had some problems as well with my FP1 and FP2.
Here’s just some thoughts from me:
In a way you are right of course.
On the other hand, Fairphone still is a small business, lacking the funds as well as the power to strike bargains with suppliers of raw materials, hard- and software.
Therefore I see it this way: the wealthy people are needed to start this movement, so it gets momentum and becomes affordable for everyone. It’s the same with almost every technical thing. Early adopters pay higher prices paving the path for the mass-market.
There’s this statement by a fairphone employee:
Whereas “refurbished” means a used one, that has been checked by Fairphone.
To be found here in a long thread discussing many a question you might have asked yourself:
I don’t know about this, but it’s a interesting question. There is a German newspaper, that offers various kinds of subscriptions (reduced price for low-income people; standard price; solidarity-price for the ones who can afford it and want to supprt the subscriptions at a reduced price).
Should be interesting to learn, if people would be willing to pay such a political price; for example: 325.- / 525.- / 575.-; so four “political customers” would support one “low income customer”. When subscribing to that newspaper, it’s yours to choose, how much you want to pay. Tbh, I have my doubts that it could work like that for a smartphone.
Well, there is no warranty, even if it seems to counter their principles.
As I already said, Fairphone still is a small company and therefore can not be compared to the global players like Apple, Samsung, HTC, etc.; them having support and durabilty problems of their own.
Anyway, the FP1 can not be compared to the FP2 when it comes to supportability, as the 1 was an off the shelf phone by a Chinese manufacturer (that is no longer producing phones btw.), while the 2 has been developed by Fairphone itself, giving them way more influence in the process and on behalf of the parts .
Therefore I really do hope, that support for the FP2 is destined to last longer. Still, one never knows what might happen, even Fairphone can not foresee everything and might be forced to a change of plans. (They just should be more forthcoming about such developments.)
My impression is, that Fairphone is very dedicated but might be a bit challenged to stay on top with all the tasks at hand (keep in mind: this list is just plausible guesswork on my behalf):
- Developing a FP3 (or 2.1)
- Developing new modules (better camera)
- Keeping the software updated
- Producing FP2 for delivery by end of October
- Fixing flaws
- Providing support and handling warranty cases
- Making business plans and most likely negotiating with retailers and mobile service providers
This may not seem a long list, but from what I know, every one point on that list is tieing up a serious amount of workforce and I don’t expect that list to be complete.
As far as I am concerned, I am really surprised what has been achieved already, especially with regard to this active and able community, developing various OS, working on bugfixing and helping each other.
This all - in my opinion - makes up for the shortcomings of my FP2 and is reason enough to keep my trust.
Well, that has become a bit long; and still its far from all I have been thinking about.
Maybe you would like to browse #community, as there are some threads, that might be interisting for you; and it’s not just unanimous praise of Fairphone. 