Fairphone has to this point been a distinct segment participant with its give attention to modularity, reparability, and sustainability, however the firm now has a brand new CEO and desires to make a lot greater waves than earlier than. Reinier Hendriks, the brand new boss, labored at Vodafone and KPN up to now, and joined Fairphone from Leaseweb. Whereas he does not have expertise in smartphone making per se, he thinks his function is all about “understanding the shopper”, and that is the identical in all industries.
Hendriks has large plans for the model. Fairphone will launch in 23 extra markets this yr, with Austria and Switzerland already underway, and a gross sales companion additionally being discovered for the UK. Fairphone gadgets can be supplied by carriers in addition to distributors throughout these markets, making them rather more seen than ever earlier than.
The brand new CEO needs to ultimately goal the €400 value level, which is about €300 lower than what the Fairphone 5, the newest mannequin, goes for. To attain that feat, Fairphone is extra carefully collaborating with Google and Qualcomm.
Hendriks says the present mannequin “meets 80% of buyer wants”, which isn’t sufficient to win over a big variety of shoppers – in reality, the model solely bought 235,000 models final yr, most of them in Germany (which is one among its largest markets together with the Netherlands).
To place that into perspective, be aware that all the marketplace for smartphones in Germany final yr was 20 million. To be greater than a blip on the radar, Fairphone must go well past 80% of buyer wants. Hendriks says folks wish to make a contribution (to sustainability), however they do not wish to sacrifice the whole lot else within the course of.
And that does look like a strong concept. Hopefully the model can ship, because it’s quite distinctive within the smartphone area. And that uniqueness is not misplaced on Hendriks, who has put collectively a workforce engaged on getting its message throughout by way of new advertising channels.
Supply (in German)
