A device billed as the world's first ethically sourced
smartphone was unveiled in London this week, but despite thousands of
pre-orders its designer says the project remains a huge gamble.
The Dutchman behind the Fairphone says it avoids
sourcing materials from conflict zones or using factories with poor labour
practices, taking as its model the coffee and banana "fair-trade"
industry.
More than 15,000 people have already ordered the new
handset, which sells for 325 euros ($440) and is due to start shipping in
December, but designer Bas van Abel said ethical business was far from easy.
"The responsibility is enormous," he told AFP
at the unveiling of the Fairphone's prototype at the London Design Festival.
"These 15,000 people trust me. If the factory
which makes the devices is engulfed by an earthquake, I am going to have to
refund them one-by-one.
"When I think about it I can't even sleep or
eat."
The Fairphone prototype looks much like its
competitors, Apple's iPhone and Samsung's Galaxy, but the designers say there
is a world of difference.
Fairphone describes itself as a "social
enterprise" that has essentially crowd-sourced its funding from the
thousands of people who have ordered the device without ever actually seeing
one.
Van Abel, a 36-year-old father-of three, had initially
focused on finding a way to ethically obtain coltan, a mineral which is vital
for mobile phones whose extraction in the Democratic Republic of Congo feeds
one of the deadliest conflicts since World War II.
Realising that cobalt was also used extensively to make
handsets, Van Abel quickly broadened his ambition to building a smartphone
embodying social and environmental values all along the production chain.
The Fairphone is also designed to be less energy-hungry
and more easily recyclable than current smartphones.
It is still manufactured in China, like the iPhone
whose maker Apple has faced pressure to better oversee often-poor manufacturing
conditions in China since 13 workers for one of its suppliers committed suicide
in 2010
But Van Abel says that he is trying to "change the
system where it is at its worst".
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