The smartphone industry has always been questioned when it
comes to production and pricing ethics. Apple for instance have previously
criticized for its large margins for its iPhones even though the cost of
producing the iPhone is only half of what it is actually charging. Moreover,
the company has made headlines in the past with reports about poor labor
conditions in its manufacturing plant in China.
This is what Dutch company Fairphone would like to change by
announcing a phone that’s designed to highlight the use of conflict materials
in the construction of consumer electronics at the same time promote the production
of ethically sourced, built and distributed smartphones. Having said this, the
company will be making information about the production and distribution of the
smartphones transparent, disseminating the information to the public.
The company aims to flag production and distribution
processes that’s being done poorly, and recommend changes to improve the system
which can then later on be shared with the industry creating a state of “fairness”
in the market.
Fairphone needs 5000 pre-orders in order to begin production. The device will be priced at around $430 and will feature a quad-core CPU on a Mediatek 6589 chipset, a 4.3-inch display protected by Dragontrail glass, an 8MP rear camera and 16BG of on-board storage. The Fairphone will run Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and will run a special interface developed by Kwame Corporation.
At 19 days left, the company has already sold over 2400
units. If you want to pre-order the phone, you can do so by signing up using
this link.
