Silicon Canals
TRENDING
  • Mobility
  • AI
  • FinTech
  • Software & SaaS
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Ukraine
    • Startups
    • Scaleups
    • Coin Canals
    • FinTech
    • AI and chatbots
    • Travel & Mobility
    • Software & SaaS
    • Health & Medtech
    • (Crowd)funding
    • Blockchain
    • Internet of things
    • Hardware
    • Accelerators
    • E-commerce
    • Cybersecurity
    • Gaming & Virtual Reality
    • Drones
    • COVID-19
  • Features
    • How-to
    • Knowledge & Insights
    • Guest Contributions
  • Partners
    • Amsterdam
    • Rise by Techleap.nl
    • Fintech Files by AWS
    • Scaling-up in Europe
    • Blue Tulip Awards
    • Partner with us
    • Promoted content
  • Jobs
  • About us
    • Partner with us
    • About
    • Team
    • Newsletter
  • Contact
  • Home
  • News
    • Ukraine
    • Startups
    • Scaleups
    • Coin Canals
    • FinTech
    • AI and chatbots
    • Travel & Mobility
    • Software & SaaS
    • Health & Medtech
    • (Crowd)funding
    • Blockchain
    • Internet of things
    • Hardware
    • Accelerators
    • E-commerce
    • Cybersecurity
    • Gaming & Virtual Reality
    • Drones
    • COVID-19
  • Features
    • How-to
    • Knowledge & Insights
    • Guest Contributions
  • Partners
    • Amsterdam
    • Rise by Techleap.nl
    • Fintech Files by AWS
    • Scaling-up in Europe
    • Blue Tulip Awards
    • Partner with us
    • Promoted content
  • Jobs
  • About us
    • Partner with us
    • About
    • Team
    • Newsletter
  • Contact
No Result
View All Result
Silicon Canals
No Result
View All Result

Fairphone founder Bas van Abel about turning a bunch of rocks into a smartphone

Dennis de Vries by Dennis de Vries
September 3, 2020
in News, Amsterdam, COVID-19, Startups
Fairphone

Image credits: Fairphone

101
SHARES
LinkedInTwitterWhatsAppFacebook

The fairest, most sustainable smartphone comes from Amsterdam. Fairphone has been proving that consumer electronics do not need to have a terrible impact on the world around us since 2013. With their recent launch of the Fairphone 3+, an upgraded version of their modular Fairphone 3, they keep striving for a better world. Fairphone founder Bas van Abel is eager to tell about the steps the Amsterdam-based smartphone maker made in the past years. But he also points out the real change has to come from all of us: the people buying stuff. 

Fairphone 3+ launched as new phone or upgrade

One of the selling points of the sustainable smartphone maker has always been that their phones will last for a long time. They do so by making them extremely repairable, bagging a perfect score at repair guru’s iFixit, as well as promising five years of software support. Not launching a new phone with small upgrades, just to get people to ditch their old ones was the point of Fairphone. So how did the launch of the Fairphone 3+ go down with the loyal community?

- Partner content -
EIT Digital
EIT Digital Challenge 2022 is here!
Calling all European deep-tech scaleups for EIT Digital Challenge 2022Show More
Calling all European deep-tech scaleups for EIT Digital Challenge 2022 Show Less
Read more

Read more: What’s new in Fairphone 3+?

“Before the launch we had some critical supporters saying a new device would be against our philosophy,” says Bas van Abel. After stepping down as CEO in 2018, he stayed at the company on the board of directors and is still involved in building the brand. “But after the launch we had a lot of positive feedback”, continues Van Abel. He gleefully points to a review in international newspaper The Guardian, which gave the new Fairphone the maximum score of five stars. Tree and a half for the device, the remaining one and a half for the story and the philosophy. Van Abel: “Techcrunch also had a nice one, saying you could basically buy a new phone for €70.”

This relates to the upgraded camera unit of the new smartphone. The Fairphone 3+ differs from its predecessor in two important ways. It uses more post consumer plastic. Of all the plastics in the device, 40 percent is now recycled. Second upgrade is the camera, which is now a 48 megapixel unit on the back and a new 16 megapixel camera facing the front. Owners of an original Fairphone 3 can upgrade their device for €70 to a 3+. Further, they swapped the new camera in a pinch: the device is modular and upgrades like changing a camera can be done by anyone with opposable thumbs.

Developing hardware during a pandemic

According to Van Abel, making smartphone components that are interchangeable by the users is challenging. To add to that, Fairphone was developing new hardware in the time when the world suffered a global pandemic and had to partially shut down. Lucky for Fairphone, they had enough practice, says Van Abel: “Because of COVID-19, people realised the world is very much connected. We already experienced that while making our previous phones. A smartphone consists of over 1200 elements, coming from thousands of factories. We learned to work with the capriciousness of the supply chain. We raised capital to build up stocks so we could compensate for delays. Our previous experiences made us better prepared.”

Stay up-to-date: Read all our COVID-19 coverage here 

On the side of sales, Fairphone hasn’t been hit quite as hard as well. It is too early to tell anything about the pre-orders of the new device. But the Fairphone 3 has been selling steadily, according to Van Abel. “We didn’t really notice the pandemic, except for the period when the stores had to close. The loss in purchasing power due to the crisis is partially compensated by the fact that it makes people more thoughtful of where their products come from. More people would rather buy from a company where they can see where everything is coming from. We are not one of those companies that suddenly sell a lot more due to corona, but it cancels each other out a bit.” 

Fair ingredients for the modern world

The Fairphone 3+ is not the only announcement the company has done. 2020 has seen a steady stream of smaller and bigger news coming from the sustainable manufacturer. They started offering accessories (a partially modular headset), a new operating system (Fairphone 3 supports the privacy friendly /e/OS) and most importantly: progress in their quest for a fairer supply chain. In June they announced they had set up a Fair Cobalt Alliance, in which major parties like cobalt suppliers Huayou and Glencore joined forces to improve working conditions along the supply chain from the mines all the way to the market.

It’s been a long time coming for Van Abel. He says one of his first foreign trips for Fairphone, before they even made a phone, was to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for this particular purpose. Van Abel: “The price of cobalt has exploded, because it is used in batteries. The demand is huge, but there are not enough recycled resources. The artisanal mining industry has thousands of children working. Our energy transition is partially powered by child labour. It’s great that we’re moving to more sustainability in our use of energy, but the ingredients are not fair. The alliance is a great example in how we can move large companies.” 

Behind the scenes, other larger companies are also influenced by Fairphone. Sometimes, unwittingly, says Van Abel: “We have a lot of contact with Apple and we share parts of the supply chain with them. We managed to switch a factory to fair trade gold a while back. Apple also bought printed circuit boards there. I’m pretty sure there are iPhones out there containing fair trade gold, without Apple knowing.”

Changing an attitude

It might however take a while before Apple or similar large tech companies adopt Fairphone’s approach to fairer electronics. The solution does not start with Apple, says Van Abel: “We all want a thinner phone, right? And then we are surprised that we have to send it back when a small thing is broken.” 

Sustainability is not without compromises, says Van Abel. “Yes, a phone will be slightly thicker when the battery is replaceable. But that does mean you don’t need to buy a new phone once the battery is at its end of life. So it’ll be cheaper for you. The solution to the whole problem lies with us, the people that buy stuff. Buying new stuff starts with someone with a spade in the DRC. Once you realise that, you’ll see how special it is that we can turn a bunch of rocks in a small computer or smartphone.”

This article is produced in a collaboration with StartupAmsterdam. Read more about our partnering opportunities.

 - Partner content -
How cybersecurity scaleup Intigriti conquered the world?
How cybersecurity scaleup Intigriti conquered the world?
Catch our interview with Paul Down, Head of Sales at Intigriti.
Catch our interview with Paul Down, Head of Sales at Intigriti. Show Less
Read more
Tags: featuredinterview
Share6Tweet22SendShare49

Partner content | Work with us

Tokenisation is the future of the financial services industry, and Luxembourg’s Tokeny is at the helm of this change

Copilot for growers: Source.ag’s Rien Kamman explains how it helps growers increase their fresh produce with AI

Waste problem is complex, but Seenons has a solution: CEO and co-founder Joost Kamermans explains the plan

Want to scale your business in Germany and Europe? Here’s how the Scaleup Landing Pad Hamburg can help

Is your deep tech scaleup aiming high? The EIT Digital Challenge 2022 can get you there

Silicon Canals | Jobs


Breaking news from Amsterdam | Partner

Amsterdam and Paris-based Trezy bags €1M, opens European headquarters in the Dutch capital

Amsterdam’s Just Eat Takeaway made progress towards profitability in H1 2022: Report

9 Amsterdam-based startups that are cooling the planet

Amsterdam-based CarbonCancel, a company that helped offset carbon footprint, shuts shop: Know more

Advertisement

  • About Silicon Canals
  • Partner with Silicon Canals
  • Contact us
  • Newsletter
  • Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy (UK)
  • Cookie Policy (EU)
  • Terms & Conditions Silicon Canals

Silicon Canals 2014-2022 | Website: Bright Idiots

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • Ukraine
    • Startups
    • Scaleups
    • Coin Canals
    • FinTech
    • AI and chatbots
    • Travel & Mobility
    • Software & SaaS
    • Health & Medtech
    • (Crowd)funding
    • Blockchain
    • Internet of things
    • Hardware
    • Accelerators
    • E-commerce
    • Cybersecurity
    • Gaming & Virtual Reality
    • Drones
    • COVID-19
  • Features
    • How-to
    • Knowledge & Insights
    • Guest Contributions
  • Partners
    • Amsterdam
    • Rise by Techleap.nl
    • Fintech Files by AWS
    • Scaling-up in Europe
    • Blue Tulip Awards
    • Partner with us
    • Promoted content
  • Jobs
  • About us
    • Partner with us
    • About
    • Team
    • Newsletter
  • Contact

Silicon Canals 2014-2022 | Website: Bright Idiots

Stay updated with the Silicon Canals daily and weekly newsletters.
We promise we won't spam you. You can choose to unsubscribe anytime.
Stay updated with the Silicon Canals daily and weekly newsletters.
We promise we won't spam you. You can choose to unsubscribe anytime.
Silicon Canals
Manage your privacy

To provide the best experiences, we and our partners use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us and our partners to process personal data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.

Click below to consent to the above or make granular choices. Your choices will be applied to this site only. You can change your settings at any time, including withdrawing your consent, by using the toggles on the Cookie Policy, or by clicking on the manage consent button at the bottom of the screen.

Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Statistics

Marketing

Features
Always active

Always active
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
Manage options
{title} {title} {title}
X
X