(*23*)Fairphone has thus far been a distinct segment participant with its deal with modularity, reparability, and sustainability, however the firm now has a new CEO and wants to make a lot greater waves than earlier than. Reinier Hendriks, the new boss, labored at Vodafone and KPN in the previous, and joined Fairphone from Leaseweb. While he would not have expertise in smartphone making per se, he thinks his position is all about “understanding the buyer”, and that is the identical in all industries.
(*23*)Hendriks has massive plans for the model. Fairphone will launch in 23 further markets this yr, with Austria and Switzerland already underway, and a gross sales associate additionally being discovered for the UK. Fairphone gadgets shall be provided by carriers in addition to distributors throughout these markets, making them way more seen than ever earlier than.
(*23*)The new CEO wants to finally goal the €400 price point, which is about €300 lower than what the Fairphone 5, the most up-to-date mannequin, goes for. To obtain that feat, Fairphone is extra carefully collaborating with Google and Qualcomm.
(*23*)Hendriks says the present mannequin “meets 80% of buyer wants”, which isn’t sufficient to win over a major variety of customers – in actual fact, the model solely offered 235,000 models final yr, most of them in Germany (which is one in every of its largest markets together with the Netherlands).
(*23*)To put that into perspective, notice that the whole marketplace for smartphones in Germany final yr was 20 million. To be greater than a blip on the radar, Fairphone wants to go well beyond 80% of buyer wants. Hendriks says folks need to make a contribution (to sustainability), however they do not need to sacrifice the whole lot else in the course of.
(*23*)And that does appear to be a strong thought. Hopefully the model can ship, because it’s quite distinctive in the smartphone area. And that uniqueness is not misplaced on Hendriks, who has put collectively a staff engaged on getting its message throughout by way of new advertising channels.
Source (in German)