This article is from WeChat official account: Ai Faner (ID: ifanr) , author: Zhou Yu, the original title: “high with low, old design, but this” small and ugly, “the mobile phone manufacturers are Apple millet Why not get rid of? “, the title picture comes from: Fairphone

In April, the flagship product launches of mainstream mobile phone manufacturers have also come to an end. Each product has its own characteristics. The same is that most of them are relatively compact in structure, difficult to disassemble, and also have a certain degree of dust and water resistance. performance.

To the current smart phones, integration and precision have become the default development direction of the whole industry, but this also makes a lot of the fun of playing the machine disappear.

When I was in high school, when I went out, I would inevitably charge a few batteries. When I tapped my phone, the battery level went from 0% to 100% instantly, and there was almost no battery anxiety.

Nowadays, when the battery cannot be removed, fast charging can only slightly reduce the power anxiety, and the fun of removing the battery is no longer there.

However, there is still such a maverick mobile phone company Fairphone in the industry.Not only can the battery be removed, but the back cover, lens module, etc. can be replaced, allowing you to replace parts and assemble mobile phones like Lego blocks.< /strong>.

With the fierce competition and mature development of smartphones, it is not easy for them to continue to survive.

1. Assemble the phone like Lego

Fairphone is a mobile phone company founded in 2013. At that time, it was the golden age of smart phone development. Various mobile phone brands created and launched products, and smart phones were rapidly popularized due to falling prices.

Compared with other brands’ main cost-effectiveness, Fairphone is a bit special.It is mainly used for sustainable use, that is, modular design. According to Fairphone’s official website, batteries, lens modules, USB ports, etc. can all be replaced.< /strong>.

It is not very expensive to disassemble the back cover of the module. The most expensive 48-megapixel camera module is 59.95 euros.

Seeing the internal structure diagram of this product, it can be seen that it is very simple to disassemble. After opening the phone, most of them are fixed with screws, and the components are relatively easy to disassemble and replace. Firephone is also the first to obtain iFixit. The repair is divided into 10 points (10/10) mobile phones.

In contrast, the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s iFixit repair score is 6 points, and according to Fairphone, most of them choose sustainable materials or corresponding industry chain companies that support sustainable design when manufacturing mobile phones.

Fairphone founder Bas van Abel once told the media:

We made such a mobile phone that people can open and replace parts themselves. If they use it carefully, it can take longer. This also means that they may use it for a long time.

From the current perspective, it seems worthwhile to buy a mobile phone that is easier to repair and has a longer service life. Moreover, the concept of environmental protection and sustainability is increasingly supported by consumers. Market research agency Nielsen once According to the release report, 2/3 of consumers worldwide (including 73% of post-80s and post-90s) expressed willingness to pay more for sustainable brands .

At that stage in 2013, Fairphone was still regarded as a representative of idealization. Mainstream mobile phone manufacturers were occupying the market through low-end products or increasing product power to form a fixed brand recognition, but Fairphone took the initiative to move towards Niche market.

From the comparison between the two parties, it can be seen that the product power of Fairphone is much lower. Although the modular design makes it easier to disassemble, the speed of configuration updates and obsolescence is also much higher.

Take the Fairphone 3+ released by Fairphone last year as an example. Not only does it have no full screen design, but the battery capacity is only 3040mA.h. The processor uses the Snapdragon 632, which has only 4GB of running memory.

Furthermore, the price of Firephone 3+ is not low, starting at 439 Euros, which is more than 3,000 yuan when converted to RMB. Of course, there are also reasons why European mobile phones are more expensive.

Comparing the Xiaomi 10T 5G and Firephone 3+ sold in Europe will be more intuitive. Xiaomi 10T 5G supports 5G, the processor uses the Snapdragon 865, the screen supports 144Hz, and the memory is 6GB+128GB. Firephone 3+ is cheaper, priced at 419 Euros.

Not low prices and large gaps in hardware configurations have dissuaded many consumers. To put it bluntly, buy a mid-to-low-end experience mobile phone at the price of a mid-range phone, just to make it more usable In a few years, not many consumers will make this choice.

Even low-end products have a relatively good experience in daily social networking, e-commerce and other scenarios today, most people still tend to buy more cost-effective mobile phones. Fairphone’s first mobile phone was sold through crowdfunding, while the second generation relied on sales revenue and some bank loans to be sold.

The fact that it can live to the present also proves that there are still certain consumers in the niche market, but it does not mean that the modular hardware design can be used all the time by replacing the parts. The mobile phone system It will also affect the life cycle.

Second, the system that is continuously upgraded can make the phone last longer

I mentioned in the previous article that the life cycle of a mobile phone is not only determined by the hardware, but also by the software. Taking the iPhone as an example, the iPhone 6S is the oldest iPhone supported by iOS 14.

Picture from: CNET

Moreover, the software in the App Store also has system requirements. For example, “Yuan Shen” is only iOS 9.0 or above. The latest version of WeChat requires iOS 11.0 and above. The software in the Android App Store also has similar requirements.

When the hardware still supports operation, the mobile phone does not support the system update, which will make the mobile phone useless. The fact is that because the iPhone uses a self-developed chip and system, the supported system update cycle is longer than that of Android, and Fairphone naturally uses the open source Android system

This also means that although Fairphpone can continue to replace parts, the system will also limit its use time, without updating the processor and other hardware, it will also limit system updates. Compared with other mobile phones, Fairphone is relatively weak in this regard.

Here is a brief description of the Android update process. Generally speaking, Google releases to users, basically through chip manufacturers, such as MediaTek and Qualcomm to add driver support to the system, and then further adaptation by mobile phone manufacturers , Add drivers for mobile phone lenses and other hardware and customize AndroidSystem and so on.

In this process, Fairphone plays the role of a mobile phone manufacturer, which means it is subject to the development progress of Google and Qualcomm. This is why Fairphone claims to be able to be used for a long time, but the mobile phone has been updated to Fairphone 3+ for a total of four generations. s reason.

As a commercial organization, chip manufacturers definitely hope to iteratively update and sell more and more chips, so it is impossible to maintain the old chips or add corresponding driver support to the old chips.

The Snapdragon 801 on Fairphone has stopped supporting Android 6 as early as Android 6, and the Snapdragon 632 used by the latest Fairphone 3+ is only supported until July 2021.

Of course, Fairphone has not thought of a solution during this period. Other open source Android systems are its choice. The open source Android system LineageOS can be used without Qualcomm support.

However, this also caused Fairphone to complete a large number of feasibility tests on its own to meet Google’s requirements, and the system update was slow. While most mainstream flagship Android phones are using Android 11, the latest Fairphone 3+ uses Android 10.

What makes the Firephone team happy is that Qualcomm and Google recently jointly announced that they will start with Snapdragon 888 and jointly undertake part of the upgrade and adaptation work, so that phones equipped with Qualcomm chips can support 4 years of Android system updates and security updates, and improve refresh rate.

This means that it can allow mobile phones to support the new system longer without the need to replace the main chip, and users can use Fairphone for a longer time. After all, the most influential software system requirements are often later than the system update cycle.

This is also in line with the current changes in user habits. The use time of a mobile phone is increasing, especially after 5G mobile phone manufacturers have raised prices and hit the high-end trend.

Three, small but beautiful is worthy of respect, but it’s better that the mainstream sees niche needs

Fairphone is currently mainly sold and operated in Europe. It is claimed to have been in Europe for a long time. It is also a European company, but it may also have different influences on user habits in different regions.

Picture from: androidcommunity

If Fairphone goes on sale in China, sales may not be very good. Fairphone 3+ is not only a low profile and high price, but the product form and performance are far from mainstream mobile phones. It looks like it was a few years ago. The products are also a niche in Europe.

The vast majority of consumers will not choose such a mobile phone. To some extent, it is going against the direction of commercial development of electronic products. Mainstream mobile phone brands are constantly improving performance and developing new technologies. hitCreate new experience differences in order to obtain higher sales.

The result is to seek for benevolence and benevolence. Fairphone has indeed become a small and beautiful brand that meets the needs of some users. Personally, I would not buy a phone like fairphone, but it is still worthy of respect, and Like the small screen flagship, it is not easy to produce products that can cater to the needs of a small number of users, not to mention that it has survived to the present.

Of course, I hope that mainstream manufacturers will see these hidden corners so that mobile phones can be used for longer.

The recent repairability system in France is also an attempt to tell consumers the difficulty of repairing mobile phones through quantitative scores, allowing people to choose mobile phones that are easier to repair and use for longer periods of time, which in turn encourages mobile phone manufacturers to adjust their products.

Samsung soon added a detailed online repair guide to its product Galaxy S21 Plus after the French law was introduced for people’s reference.

As the most criticized company, Apple also announced some time ago the IRP(independent repairer) plan to accelerate the opening of third-party repairs. Popularize it to the world as soon as possible, so that third-party repairers can also obtain official Apple parts, simplifying the user repair process.

Although the IRP(independent repairer) program still has a stricter review, it has been extended from the United States to the world. For ordinary consumers Saying is still a good thing.

As a sophisticated electronic product, mobile phone integration is indeed a development trend, but it is still important for consumers to repair it more conveniently. This is also in line with the change in consumer habits, and now mobile phone manufacturers do not rely solely on Mobile phone hardware profit, application stores and other services are all ways for them to profit.

In addition, connecting to more IoT devices through mobile phones is also one of the development directions of mainstream manufacturers. Most of the same brand of mobile phones and IoT products will have advantages in connection and interaction, and can also attract consumers to enter the brand’s hardware Ecological.

Covering the widest range of user needs, the product strength will become stronger and stronger.

This article is from WeChat official account: Ai Faner (ID: ifanr) , author: Zhou Yu