Fairphone Has a New Plan to Get You to Care

“I can't spot immoderate important maturation implicit the adjacent fewer years,” says Stryjak. “Other companies person caught up a small spot successful presumption of making things much durable and sustainable and repairable, and with consumers a cardinal operator is inactive pricing and brand. Fairphone volition person its loyal instrumentality base, but I can't spot that importantly expanding anytime soon.”

“Nobody Wants to Pull connected a Dead Horse”

We enactment to Fairphone the thought it whitethorn person to marque bash pootling on with this aforesaid niche audience. “I volition accidental it’s nonsense, right?” Fairphone CEO Raymond van Eck told WIRED.

“I would ne'er person started astatine a institution … if we consciousness determination is nary potential. Nobody wants to, arsenic we accidental successful Dutch, propulsion connected a dormant equine to spot if it's going to walk.” Fairphone is based successful Amsterdam, and van Eck was appointed CEO successful August 2024.

“In the adjacent 5 years, we truly person the volition to quadruple our addressable marketplace and to instrumentality our just stock of that,” says van Eck. The institution has besides acceptable a extremity of “double digit growth” conscionable for this year. The evident question: how?

Part of Fairphone’s strategy is of people seen successful the Fairphone 6 itself. It has immoderate neat ideas specified arsenic a slider that puts the telephone into an Essentials mode. This pares backmost the interface to assistance you get distant from the distractions of, for example, societal media.

There’s a breezy manner space present Fairphones person arguably not had before. And fostering that was a portion of the rebrand the institution kicked disconnected astatine the opening of 2025, which included binning the stiff-looking, all-caps institution logo of aged for thing a spot much friendly.

The Fairphone Fix

Van Eck says it’s astir “changing the order” of priorities, of putting the instrumentality itself astatine rod presumption alternatively than the morals it represents. “In the end, it besides is clarifying Fairphone’s vision, due to the fact that the rebrand gave america a much friendly, much approachable identity," helium says. "It’s a spot little paternalistic.”

The connection is that Fairphone isn’t conscionable a telephone for eco warriors. And main exertion serviceman Chandler Elizabeth Hatton suggests that image, that classical Fairphone message, whitethorn person really proved off-putting for some.

“When we are selling the device, we don't pb with that. Not successful our advertizing campaigns, not successful our communication, and besides not the mode that I would similar to convey it to you,” says Hatton. “It tin go preachy successful immoderate markets. That connection is resonating little close now. There are radical that are successful panic but besides wholly exhausted by the clime situation oregon questions of ethics.”

So … is it clip to de-woke Fairphone? That seems excessively blunt an interpretation, due to the fact that there’s nary denotation that Fairphone plans to dilute its standards. It’s conscionable not going to harp connected astir them rather arsenic overtly.

Turning Down the Volume

“Fairphone was founded 12 years ago, fundamentally to tackle the societal and biology issues embedded successful the electronics industry,” says Van Eck. “What we besides saw is that Fairphone was rather situated astir telling that communicative … which meant that the Fairphone was for a lesser addressable market.”

This caller attack besides involves not having excessively bold a instrumentality connected things similar AI, which owing to its environmental impact could beryllium seen arsenic antithetical to 1 portion of the aged Fairphone message.