Fairphone Has a New Plan to Get You to Care

“I can't spot immoderate important maturation complete nan adjacent fewer years,” says Stryjak. “Other companies person caught up a small spot successful position of making things much durable and sustainable and repairable, and pinch consumers a cardinal driver is still pricing and brand. Fairphone will person its loyal instrumentality base, but I can't spot that importantly expanding anytime soon.”

“Nobody Wants to Pull connected a Dead Horse”

We put to Fairphone nan thought it whitethorn person to make do pootling on pinch this aforesaid niche audience. “I will opportunity it’s nonsense, right?” Fairphone CEO Raymond van Eck told WIRED.

“I would ne'er person started astatine a institution … if we consciousness location is nary potential. Nobody wants to, arsenic we opportunity 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 nan adjacent 5 years, we really person nan volition to quadruple our addressable marketplace and to return our adjacent stock of that,” says van Eck. The institution has besides group a extremity of “double digit growth” conscionable for this year. The evident question: how?

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

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

The Fairphone Fix

Van Eck says it’s astir “changing nan order” of priorities, of putting nan instrumentality itself astatine rod position alternatively than nan morals it represents. “In nan end, it besides is clarifying Fairphone’s vision, because nan rebrand gave america a much friendly, much approachable identity," he 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 trading nan device, we don't lead pinch that. Not successful our advertizing campaigns, not successful our communication, and besides not nan measurement that I would for illustration to convey it to you,” says Hatton. “It tin go preachy successful immoderate markets. That connection is resonating little correct now. There are group that are successful panic but besides wholly exhausted by nan ambiance situation aliases questions of ethics.”

So … is it clip to de-woke Fairphone? That seems excessively blunt an interpretation, because 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 nan Volume

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

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