Fairphone’s new CEO wants to significantly scale the brand’s influence among competitors, reports GSMArena.
For a long time, Fairphone was a niche player focused on modular phones. Reinier Hendriks, the new CEO, previously worked at Vodafone and joined Fairphone from Leaseweb. Although he has no experience in smartphone manufacturing, he believes that his role is to understand the customer, which is the same in all industries.
Until now, the manufacturer has operated mainly in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Now the company has set its sights on 23 new markets. The launch is already underway in Austria and Switzerland, and a sales partner has been found in the UK. Fairphone devices will be offered by operators and distributors in these markets, which will make them more visible.
The new CEO wants to eventually reach a price point of 400 euros for a smartphone, which is about 300 euros less than the newest Fairphone 5 model. To achieve this goal, Fairphone is working more closely with Google and Qualcomm.
Hendricks says that the current model meets 80% of customers’ needs, but it’s not enough to win over a significant number of consumers. The fact is that last year the brand sold only 235,000 units, most of them in Germany (which is one of its largest markets along with the Netherlands).
Considering that the entire smartphone market in Germany last year amounted to 20 million, Fairphone’s share doesn’t seem too big.
The company did not disclose the timing or list of all countries where it plans to appear. So, we should expect future news from perhaps a new major player in the smartphone market.
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