This article contains content that is written like an advertisement .(September 2023) |
Company type | Privately held company |
---|---|
Industry | Telecommunications equipment |
Founded | January 2013 |
Founder | Bas van Abel Tessa Wernink |
Headquarters | , Netherlands |
Area served | Western and Central Europe except Malta and Cyprus |
Key people |
|
Products | Smartphones |
Website | www |
Fairphone is a Dutch electronics manufacturer that designs and produces smartphones and headphones. It aims to minimise the ethical and environmental impact of its devices by using recycled, fairtrade and conflict-free materials, maintaining fair labor conditions throughout its workforce and suppliers, and enabling users to easily repair their devices through modular design and by providing replacement parts. [1]
As of 2023 [update] , the company's most recent smartphone is the Fairphone 5, which it plans to provide with security updates and software support, including 5 OS updates, for 10 years. [2] [3] [4]
Fairphone was founded by Bas van Abel, Tessa Wernink and Miquel Ballester [5] as a social enterprise company in January 2013, having existed as a campaign for two and a half years.[ citation needed ]
In April 2015 the company became a registered B Corporation. [6]
Since version two, the Fairphone is produced in Suzhou, China, by Hi-P International Limited. [7]
In November 2021, the Fairphone 4 was made available.
As of February 2022, Fairphone had sold around 400,000 devices. [8]
In 2023 a consortium of impact investors led by new shareholders Invest-NL, the ABN AMRO Sustainable Impact Fund, and existing shareholder Quadia, with its Regenero Impact Fund, invested €49 million in Fairphone. [9]
Name | Release date | SoC | CPU | GPU | Memory (GB) | Storage (GB) | Display | Camera | Initial Android version | Battery capacity (mAh) | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Type | Speed (GHz) | Cores | Type | Speed (MHz) | Size (inches) | PPI | Rear | Front | |||||||
Fairphone 1 | Dec 2013 | MediaTek MT6589 | Cortex-A7 | 1.2 | 4 | PowerVR SGX544MP | 286 | 1 | 16 | 4.3 | 256 | 8MP | 1.3MP | 4.2.2 | 2000 |
Fairphone 2 | Dec 2015 | Qualcomm 801 (MSM8974AB) | Krait 400 | 2.26 | 4 | Adreno 330 | 578 | 2 | 32 | 5 | 446 | 12MP | 5MP | 5.1 | 2420 |
Fairphone 3 | Sep 2019 | Qualcomm 632 | Kryo 250 Gold+Silver | 1.8+1.8 | 4+4 | Adreno 506 | 600 | 4 | 64 | 5.65 | 427 | 12MP | 8MP | 9 | 3060 |
Fairphone 3+ | Sep 2020 | 48MP (12MP output) | 16MP | 10 | |||||||||||
Fairphone 4 | 30 Sep 2021 | Qualcomm 750G | Kryo 570 Gold+Silver | 2.2+1.8 | 2+6 | Adreno 619 | 950 | 6/8 | 128/256 | 6.3 | 409 | 48MP OIS, 48 MP Ultrawide, (ToF + Color) sensor | 25MP | 11 | 3905 |
Fairphone 5 [10] | 30 Aug 2023 | Qualcomm QCM6490 [11] (IoT/ind. var. of 782G) | Kryo 670 Prime+Gold+Silver | 2.7+2.4+1.9 | 1+3+4 | Adreno 643 | 812 | 8 | 256 +up to 2TB | 6.46 | 459 | 50MP OIS, 50 MP Ultrawide, (ToF + Color) sensor | 50MP | 13 | 4200 |
The phone is modular, which makes it easily repairable and customisable by the user. According to the company, increasing the lifespan of a phone by two years reduces CO₂ emissions by 30%. [8]
The gold and silver in Fairphone 4 has the Fairtrade label, also metals used are said to come from conflict-free mines. [12] The company promises a 5-year warranty period and long-term support for software updating and spare parts. [13] In 2017, Fairphone's founder Bas van Abel acknowledged that it was currently impossible to produce a 100% fair phone, suggesting it was more accurate to call his company's phones "fairer". [14] [15]
In an interview with Will Georgi, Fairphone founder Tessa Vernink mentions:
“There might be a misconception that as a social enterprise, we don’t operate like a ‘normal’ business, but that’s not true. In many ways, most of our choices are the same — we still need to make money and sell phones — but the outcome and the goals are different. Our focus is investing in social innovation, instead of purely technical innovation. When other phone companies design a new phone, they research new technology — we research supply chain improvement.” [5]
A survey conducted by Franziska Verna Haucke in the Journal of Cleaner Production found:
Surprisingly, the findings show that alternative consumption seems to influence the involvement with the Fairphone and social commitment negatively seems to play a minor role in the model. These aspects point to the Fairphone as a technical artifact, centered on a choice for a sustainable lifestyle. [1]
Shiftphone is another small mobile telephone manufacturer with a focus on sustainability, and also developed a modular smartphone. The founder of Shiftphone considers that the two companies working in collaboration could have more influence on bigger competitors. [8]
In 2016, Fairphone's founder and first CEO Bas van Abel was one of the three recipients of the German Environmental Award. [16]
Fairphones can run several operating systems, including CalyxOS, DivestOS, /e/, iodeOS, LineageOS, Ubuntu Touch, and more. [17] Murena, the company associated with the /e/ foundation, also sells Fairphones with /e/ pre-installed and offers a warranty for them. [18] As of 2023 the official /e/ support for FP3 is based on Android 12.
Fair trade is a term for an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and environmental standards. The movement focuses in particular on commodities, or products that are typically exported from developing countries to developed countries but is also used in domestic markets, most notably for handicrafts, coffee, cocoa, wine, sugar, fruit, flowers and gold.
The Phone Co-op was an independent consumer co-operative in the United Kingdom. It provided landline, mobile telephone and Internet services, including web hosting and broadband. In April 2018, the Phone Co-op board agreed for its operations to be transferred to the Midcounties Co-operative, with the Phone Co-op legal entity ceasing to exist. The brand continued to be operated until 1 June 2018, when it was rebranded to Your Co-op following the completion of the transfer.
Cafédirect is a UK-based alternative trading organization.
Traidcraft was a UK-based Fairtrade organisation, established in 1979. Its trading arm, Traidcraft plc, which sold fairly traded products, went into administration in January 2023.
Fairtrade Canada, formerly TransFair Canada, is a national non-profit certification and public education organization promoting Fairtrade certified products in Canada to improve the livelihood of developing world farmers and workers. It is the Canadian member of FLO International, which unites 24 fair trade producer and certification initiatives across Europe, Asia, Latin America, North America, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Meizu Technology Co., Ltd. is a Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer based in Zhuhai, Guangdong. Founded in 2003 by Jack Wong, Meizu began as a manufacturer of MP3 players and later MP4 players. In 2008, Meizu moved its focus to smartphones. Meizu is the 11th largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, and sold over 20 million units in 2015. In February 2015, Alibaba invested US$590 million in Meizu, acquiring an undisclosed minority stake.
A fair trade certification is a product certification within the market-based movement of fair trade. The most widely used fair trade certification is FLO International's, the International Fairtrade Certification Mark, used in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Fair Trade Certified Mark is the North American equivalent of the International Fairtrade Certification Mark. As of January 2011, there were more than 1,000 companies certified by FLO International's certification and a further 1,000 or so certified by other ethical and fairtrade certification schemes around the world.
Ubuntu Touch is a mobile version of the Ubuntu operating system, being developed by the UBports community. Its user interface is written in Qt, and is designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers, but the original goal of convergence was intended to bring Ubuntu Touch to laptops, desktops, IOT devices and TVs for a complete unified user experience.
A modular smartphone is a smartphone designed for users to upgrade or replace components and modules without the need for resoldering or repair services. The most important component is the main board, to which others such as cameras and batteries are attached. Components can be obtained from open-source hardware stores.
The Fairphone 2 is a touchscreen-based, dual-SIM smartphone designed to be easily repaired by the user. First released in October 2015, it was the first modular smartphone available for purchase and has since received both hardware improvements and major software updates, initially shipping with Android 5 "Lollipop" and running Android 10 as of November 2022. Production ceased in 2018.
The Sony Xperia X is an Android smartphone produced by Sony. Part of the Sony Xperia X series, the device was unveiled along with the Sony Xperia XA and Sony Xperia X Performance at MWC 2016 on February 22, 2016. The Sony Xperia X series will replace the former Sony Xperia Z series, as confirmed by Sony Mobile's senior product marketing manager Jun Makino in February 2016.
Shiftphone is a modular, easy-to-repair smartphone brand created by the company SHIFT in Germany. The company emphasizes fair trade and ecology, similar to Fairphone. Instead of tantalum capacitors made from coltan, ceramic capacitors are used for their manufacturing. So far, eleven model series have been released. The most recent release was the SHIFT6mq in June 2020. The upcoming device will be the SHIFTphone 8, scheduled for release in 2024.
/e/ is a fork of LineageOS, an Android-based mobile operating system, and associated online services. /e/ is presented as privacy software that does not contain proprietary Google apps or services, and challenges the public to "find any parts of the system or default applications that are still leaking data to Google."
The Fairphone 3 and 3+ are touchscreen-based smartphones made by Fairphone. The phone has a modular, repairable design and is "constructed out of responsibly-sourced, conflict-free, and recycled materials where possible". It went on sale on 3 September 2019. It comes with Android 9 "Pie" installed.
The Shift6m is a modular smartphone produced by the Shift GmbH from Falkenberg, Hessen, Germany. It was released in May 2018.
SHIFT is a German smartphone and phablet manufacturer with its headquarters with design and development department in Wabern in Northern Hesse Germany and Production in China. The company focuses on fairness in manufacturing and sustainability through a modular design.
Fairphone 4 is a smartphone designed and marketed by Fairphone. It succeeds the Fairphone 3+ and was succeeded by the Fairphone 5. It was announced on 30 September 2021, and was available for order on 25 October 2021.
The Nothing Phone 1, stylized as Phone (1), is an Android smartphone by Nothing. The phone was announced on 23 March 2022 and went on sale on 21 July 2022.
Fairphone 5 is a smartphone designed and marketed by Fairphone, following its Fairphone 4. Announced on 30 August 2023, the Fairphone 5 has been shipping since 14 September 2023.
It includes fair trade gold and silver, ethically sourced aluminium and tungsten, plus recycled tin, copper, rare earth metals and plastic.
Media related to Fairphone at Wikimedia Commons