Fairphone has up to now been a distinct segment participant with its deal with modularity, reparability, and sustainability, however the firm now has a brand new CEO and needs 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 client”, and that is the identical in all industries.
Hendriks has huge plans for the model. Fairphone will launch in 23 further markets this yr, with Austria and Switzerland already underway, and a gross sales accomplice additionally being discovered for the UK. Fairphone units will probably be provided by carriers in addition to distributors throughout these markets, making them rather more seen than ever earlier than.
The brand new CEO needs to finally goal the €400 worth 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 major variety of shoppers – in actual fact, the model solely bought 235,000 models final yr, most of them in Germany (which is one among its greatest markets together with the Netherlands).
To place that into perspective, be aware that the whole 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 individuals wish to make a contribution (to sustainability), however they do not wish to sacrifice every little thing else within the course of.
And that does seem to be a stable thought. Hopefully the model can ship, because it’s quite distinctive within the smartphone house. And that uniqueness is not misplaced on Hendriks, who has put collectively a group engaged on getting its message throughout by means of new advertising channels.
Supply (in German)