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Fairphone has so far been a niche player in the smartphone market, focusing on modularity, repairability and sustainability. However, the company continues its journey with its new CEO and aims to create a bigger wave than before in the coming period.
Reinier Hendriks, who previously worked in companies such as Vodafone and KPN, took office as the new CEO of Fairphone. Although Hendriks has no experience in smartphone production, the experienced manager stated that his main job is to “understand the customer” and underlined that this is the same in all industries.
It can be said that Hendriks has big plans for the brand. The company will launch in 23 additional markets this year, including Austria and Switzerland. In addition, there will also be a sales partner for the UK. Fairphone's devices will be offered by distributors as well as operators in these markets, making them much more visible than ever before.
The new CEO is targeting a price of 400 euros, which is 300 euros lower than the 700 euro price of the Fairphone 5, the latest phone released by the company. For this, the company cooperates more closely with Google and Qualcomm.
Fairphone meets customer needs by 80 percent in the current model
Hendriks points out that the current model meets customer needs by 80 percent, and states that this is not enough to win over a significant number of consumers. The company sold only 235 thousand phones last year, most of them in Germany.
At this point, it is worth noting that 20 million smartphones will be sold in Germany in 2023. Fairphone needs to go beyond 80 percent to become more than a grain of sand in the desert. Hendricks notes that people want to contribute to sustainability, but are unwilling to sacrifice other things in the process.
And this seems like a solid idea. The brand has the potential to achieve this as it is quite unique in the smartphone space. This uniqueness is not lost on Hendriks, who has assembled a team working to deliver his message through new marketing channels.