In the Netherlands, Fairphone has launched a subscription offer accompanied by annual discounts if you keep your phone in good condition. A way to make the general public aware of the carbon footprint of devices.
Fairphone wants its customers to buy as few phones as possible. The Dutch manufacturer, known for its modular and “ethical” terminals, has just launched – in the Netherlands only – a subscription that rewards those who keep their phone for several years.
Fairphone Easy is a subscription offer similar to those found at Apple or Samsung, except for one detail: it rewards those who do not change phones every two years. The principle is simple, for a minimum of €21/month, the subscriber can become the proud owner of a Fairphone 4 with 8 GB of RAM and 256 GB of storage. As long as said subscription runs, the repair or replacement of parts is free within the limit of one screen change or one battery per year. In the event of a breakdown, a new device is sent within 48 hours, the old mobile being examined to recover potentially reconditionable parts.
Discounts every year
This is not the most interesting aspect. With Fairphone Easy, the longer you keep your phone, the less you pay. If the phone is still working flawlessly after a year, the subscription costs €2 less. After two years, a rebate of €4 per month is allocated. And if after three years the smartphone has never had any problems, the subscription costs 8 € less. “Fairphone Easy encourages subscribers to extend the life of their phone by ensuring they enjoy using it for longer”details the company’s blog post.
The objective of Fairphone Easy is to reduce the environmental footprint of terminals as much as possible. The vast majority of a mobile’s carbon footprint is indeed created during its production phase. Keeping it as long as possible therefore makes it possible to dilute this footprint over time rather than encouraging the new market. “With the current business model, approximately 1.4 billion mobile phones are sold worldwide. Users keep their phones for an average of two to three years, but only 15% of discarded phones are collected for recycling. This situation aggravates the growing problem of electronic waste in the world”, explains the company. By following up, Fairphone hopes to reduce the rate of renewal and recover devices that would otherwise be lying around in drawers.
A not-so-interesting business model
If a subscriber stops subscribing to the service, the phone is refurbished for resale. And if it is no longer in working order, it is each of the parts to which we will try to give a second life. The subscription can be canceled at any time and the minimum commitment period is set at three months. The longest is 60 months (or five years). Economically, the offer is paradoxically not so interesting. Even with discounts, the subscription to a Fairphone 4 costs €996 after five years, or almost €300 more than the value of the phone and its accessories when purchased. And that’s without taking into account any round trips to after-sales service that can cause the monthly reduction to be lost, since it only applies to terminals that have not undergone repairs. At full rate, a Fairphone obtained via Fairphone Easy costs €1,260 after a while. A sum…
As often, Fairphone’s goal with this subscription is not to offer the cheapest product possible, but to ensure the best longevity for its devices while raising awareness among the general public of the problems of electronic waste. Fairphone Easy therefore seems to be rather a militant choice for those who wish to respond to the manufacturer’s approach while having the assurance of having a functional and more environmentally friendly telephone.
Contacted, a Fairphone spokesperson confirmed “that a priori, the Easy offer is not immediately available for France”. Despite the shortcomings of the offer presented by Fairphone, it is interesting to see the emergence of initiatives aimed at slowing down our consumption rate and reflecting on the ecological impact of our devices.