When you reach a certain amount producing even more will probably not significantly drop the production cost for each device any more, but I’m sure Fairphone is still far from that point.
And those are a lot. For each product you produce you first have to design it, then get certificates and port software for it and then maintain it.
Even those running expenses will drop relatively if you produce more. That’s how the economy works. If you order more raw materials you’ll get them cheaper, if you order more components you’ll get them cheaper, if you order more final products the factory will produce them cheaper - per piece.
I don’t know where you are taking the 50% from. All I said is that mass production vs. low quantity production makes a bigger difference than fair production vs. exploitative production.
That is true. That’s an unfair advantage they are making for themselves, but even if you’re not a company that uses their power for evil, producing more will give you better negotiation power with your partners.
I’ll quote an earlier post from myself here where I wrote about a talk by Tina Trinks (former FP employee) gave in Vienna. I took notes and made that post shortly after the speech, so I think back then I remembered most of the important talking points correctly:
According to the cost breakdown more than 10% of the product cost is royalties for licenses and patents.
Also almost all of the €33.19 “Investments” seem to be fixed costs.
But let’s see if a cost breakdown will come out for the FP3 and if that will shed some light on this question. Until then let’s just agree that both mass production and exploitation make products cheaper and that they usually come together.