Fairphone 2 production and delivery countdown!
In this blog post, we will gather all production and delivery news and update this blog once a week on Wednesday.
Updated: Wednesday 18 May
It’s official – we have shipped all pre-ordered Fairphone 2’s! Thanks to all of you for your patience these last months. We hope this blog post has been a useful resource since we started shipping phones in December. Since we’ve finished these shipments, this will be our last update to the blog.
Now we have the Fairphone 2 in stock! Fairphone 2 orders will be processed the next business day, and depending on your choice of payment and shipment, most parts of Europe will receive a phone in less than one week.
Updated: Thursday 12 May
Our distribution center is currently packing and shipping orders which were ordered in the first week of May. By the end of this week, we plan to ship all current orders of the Fairphone 2!
We will update this blog one last time, once we confirm all open orders are shipped to owners.
Updated: Friday 6 May
As discussed in previous updates, we have been working with our manufacturer to improve quality checks on the production line process. These improvements have successfully resulted in an increase in the production and shipment of phones reaching our distribution center partner in the Netherlands. Now with a more steady stream of stock, our distribution center is busy shipping all these phones across Europe.
Our shipping schedule is the same as the last update.
- This week, we are shipping phones paid for at the end of March.
- Next week, we will finish shipping March orders and plan to begin April orders.
- The week of 16 May, we will finish shipping April orders.
Thanks for your patience, and have a great weekend!
Updated: Wednesday 27 April
We are on track to meet our delivery estimate from last week.
- All February orders are shipped or in transit to owners.
- March orders are now being shipped, and we expect to complete shipment by 13 May.
- April orders are expected to complete shipment by 20 May.
Updated: Wednesday 20 April
According to our current planning, we will have shipped all February orders at the end of this month. After that, we continue with the delivery of orders purchased in March, which we expect to ship in the first two weeks of May. Then April orders are up, which are planned to reach owners in the third week of May.
The outlook now is that we will have – for the first time in Fairphone 2 history – stock around the end of May. This means real-time shipping: you will be able to purchase a phone and have it as fast as the carrier can get it to your doorstep!
Our Operations Director, Steve, is in China this week to make further improvements on the newly installed quality control checks we mentioned in earlier blog updates. This means that the supply from China is stabilizing and we can better forecast when your phone will be delivered.
Updated: Thursday 14 April
We are currently shipping phones that were purchased until the 28th of January. Our latest planning is that at the end of next week, we will have shipped all orders until the 17th of February.
In addition, this month we plan to ship all February orders as well as a part of the orders purchased in March. However, it is too early to forecast how much of the March orders we can ship, but we will know more about this in next week’s delivery update.
Part of our management team is going to our production partner in China next week to inspect the process and validate the newly installed quality control checks. This will help us make sure we have a steady production both in terms of quality and quantity.
Updated: Wednesday 6 April
We are now shipping phones paid on 16 January and onwards.
We will continue to ship phones over the next two weeks to owners who paid for their phones in mid to late January. For owners who paid for their phones in February, we expect to ship out these phones by the end of April. Although we originally expected to ship all March orders in April, the production and delivery quantities are still not at a stage for us to guarantee this delivery planning. We apologize for this and will continue to update the blog with up-to-date information.
We are still making changes in quality control processes to have a constant production output from our manufacturer in China, while keeping a high level of quality. Further improvements are still required to get a high capacity of phones to be produced per week.
We want to provide more certain delivery timelines to Fairphone owners (including those who paid in March), but we cannot yet give long-term estimates on the delivery date until we get to a higher capacity of phones produced each week. We’ll keep working to get more clarity for all of you. Thanks for your patience!
Updated: Wednesday 30 March
The next batch of phones have left China and are in transit to the distribution center in the Netherlands. These phones will begin shipping across Europe on Monday 4 April on a first-come, first-serve basis beginning with owners who paid for their order in mid-January. Next week, we expect to ship orders purchased until the 22nd of January.
We should have better insight into the delivery schedule of owners from 22 January and onwards in next week’s update.
Updated: Friday 25 March
We have news from our manufacturing partner about the next Fairphone 2 shipment. A batch of phones is expected to leave China on Monday and should arrive in the Netherlands a few days after. In next Wednesday’s update, we hope to provide a new delivery schedule based on this phone shipment and the next batches to follow. Thanks for your patience, and we wish you a pleasant long weekend.
Updated: Wednesday 23 March
In our latest Fairphone 2 owners’ email, we stated that we expected phones to depart China today for those owners who paid for their phones in January. Unfortunately, these phones have not yet left our manufacturing partner in China.
This is because there are still improvements in the production line to ensure the entire process runs smoothly. Therefore, phones will not ship until we fine tune elements of the production process to reach a high level of quality.
We apologize for the delay. We do not have a delivery estimate for the next shipment, but we will update the blog on Friday to report the latest news from our manufacturing partner. Our support team does not know more specific delivery dates but if you have questions that are not answered in this post, you can write our support team via our website. Thanks again for your patience.
Updated: Wednesday 16 March
At the factory in China we keep on improving the production line and training the new workforce, for which we are now making good progress. This means that production is currently still not going as fast as it can be, but the next batch of Fairphone 2 devices is still on schedule to leave China on the 18th (this Friday).
This means we expect to be able to resume shipment of phones on the 23rd, and the shipment schedule we released last week still applies:
If you paid for your order in January, phones will begin the shipping procedure from our distribution center on the 23rd of March, with a 2-5 day delivery based on your country and carrier.
If you paid for your order in February to early March, our distribution center will begin processing, packing and shipping your order from the 30th of March onwards, with a 2-5 day delivery based on your country and carrier.
Updated: Wednesday 9 March
We are finalizing an email to all owners from January onwards with information about their order. We plan to send that tomorrow. An edited version of this information is below.
We want to explain in detail below how a workforce issue at our manufacturer means a 2 week delay in our delivery schedule.
After the annual Chinese New Year holiday, it’s common for workers’ professional or personal situation to change, and often there is a slow return of people to their work, in our case – the Fairphone 2 production line. This causes disruption to keeping a reliable production and delivery schedule. For our manufacturing partner Hi-P, the number of returning workers was lower than expected. The turnover after Chinese New Year requires time and effort both to hire new workers and to train them with the expertise to work on the assembly to make the Fairphone 2.
Unfortunately, the training of these new workers has slowed down production more than expected. We are also taking this time while the new workforce is being trained to momentarily halt production for a short period to optimize all quality processes. Keep in mind, the Fairphone 2 is the first modular phone in mass production, and we are always improving the efficiency of the production line to increase quality and reduce production waste.
A standard industry practice to speed up a short-term need, for example our issue of delayed orders, would be to hire temporary workers. But based on our goal to encourage a more stable workforce with our manufacturing partner, as well as new 2016 legal limits in China of the use of temporary/agency workers, we are working with Hi-P to reduce the hiring of temporary workers and find a balance between our production requirements and the workforce requirements.
Based on this update, here is the projected shipping schedule:
If you paid for your order in January, phones will begin shipping 23 March with a 2-5 day delivery based on your country and carrier.
If you paid for your order in February to today, your phone should ship 30 March with a 2-5 day delivery based on your country and carrier.
Our next update on the blog will be next Wednesday 16 March. We will email owners by 21 March with the latest inventory news.
Thanks for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience this delay causes.
Updated: Friday 4 March
At this time, we have shipped almost all orders of those people who have paid for their order in December. There are some exceptions if you ordered a transparent case; we have emailed these customers about this issue.
Now and throughout next week, we are shipping orders of people who paid in January. Next week in the Wednesday blog update, we should be able to give more news about the shipping progress of January orders.
Updated: Wednesday 24 February
This week, we are shipping orders which were paid for in December and early January. Owners who ordered in these months can expect their phones to arrive this week or early next week.
There are some reported instances in which you may receive your phone before receiving the Trace and Trace email connected to that order. We’re sorry if this affects your order, we are looking into correcting this issue.
Updated: Wednesday 17 February
This week, we are continuing to ship phones paid for in November 2015.
Next week, orders paid for in December 2015 and early January 2016 will be shipping to owners.
After these phones are shipped, orders paid at the end of January and February will be shipped on a rolling basis throughout March.
Please note: For a small number of owners who purchased in October, your phone has not yet shipped due to an error in the queue system. If you paid for your order in October and still have not received a track and trace email, you should receive a notification email by the end of this week. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Updated: Thursday 11 February
We are continuing to ship phones paid for in October 2015.
Next week: November 2015
Last week of February: December 2015 and early January 2016
After these phones are shipped, orders paid at the end of January and February will be shipped on a rolling basis at that time throughout March.
Since the delivery schedule has become more reliable, we will now update this blog once a week on Wednesdays beginning next week.
Updated: Monday 8 February
The counter is now at 17,418 phones shipped. All phones purchased during the crowdfunding period from July to September have been shipped!
The next shipments will continue to follow the delivery schedule reported in the last update.
*Added note on 9 February: Today we have removed the shipping counter from our homepage. We have shipped all crowdfunded phones and all other pre-ordered phones should be shipping over the next weeks as outlined in the last update.
Updated: Friday 5 February
The counter is now at 16,510 phones shipped, which is just a bit short of all phones purchased during the crowdfunding period. We expect by early next week to ship all phones ordered during the crowdfunding period at the end of September. The distribution center has been trying their best to ship out as many phones this week, but just missed the goal. We’re sorry if this affects your order.
In the middle of next week, we will begin shipping phones that were paid for in October. All other phones should follow our existing schedule:
- Phones purchased in October 2015 will be shipped the second week of February.
- Phones purchased in November 2015 will be shipped the third week of February.
- Phones purchased in December 2015 and early January 2016 will be shipped the last week of February.
All other orders will be shipped on a rolling basis at the end of February into March.
Updated: Wednesday 3 February
There are no major updates to announce. There have been some reports of Fairphone 2 owners receiving their phone without having received a notification track and trace email. We are looking into this matter and will report back with news in the Friday update.
Updated: Monday 1 February
We are still on track to follow the delivery schedule reported on Friday.
- Phones purchased from July to September 2015 will finish shipping out of the distribution center by the end of this week.
- Phones purchased in October 2015 will be shipped the second week of February.
- Phones purchased in November 2015 will be shipped the third week of February.
- Phones purchased in December 2015 and early January 2016 will be shipped the last week of February.
All other orders will be shipped on a rolling basis at the end of February.
Updated: Friday 29 January
The counter is now at 14,873 phones shipped out of the distribution center, so we are almost finished shipping all crowdfunded phones paid between July and September. We are sending an email to owners soon with the updated delivery schedule that I’m including here:
- Phones purchased from July to September 2015 will finish shipping this week and next.
- Phones purchased in October 2015 will be shipped the second week of February.
- Phones purchased in November 2015 will be shipped the third week of February.
- Phones purchased in December 2015 and early January 2016 will be shipped the last week of February.
All other orders will be shipped on a rolling basis. Thanks for your patience. We’re excited to ship out a large amount of phones in the coming weeks!
Updated: Thursday 28 January
All Fairphone 2 owners will be receiving a newsletter soon with a more detailed delivery outlook. The current planning is that all phones purchased during the crowdfunding period from July to September have either 1) been shipped to owners, or 2) will be shipped in the next week. There is a small number of owners who purchased during the end of our crowdfunding period who will not have their phones shipped to them until the first week of February, and we’re sorry for missing our January projection.
For owners who paid for their orders from October to January, we have inventory scheduled to ship your phones on a rolling basis throughout the weeks of February. More details to come in our newsletter to owners.
Updated: Monday 25 January
This week, phones are shipping to owners who paid for their order in September. Tomorrow, we will update the counter with the number of phones that were shipped today. We are working on a new delivery outlook to communicate to owners via email which will estimate the last day in February when all pre-ordered phones will be shipped. Thanks for your patience, we’re getting there!
Updated: Friday 22 January
We have shipped 11,914 phones to owners across Europe. These phones are being delivered to owners who paid for their orders at the end of August. Next week, we will start to ship orders for owners who paid in early September.
There are over 3,000 phones in inventory at the distribution center to begin shipment early next week. The next batch of 2,400 phones is scheduled to fly out of China on Tuesday.
Updated: Wednesday 20 January
We shipped over 1,000 phones in the last two days. The rest of the batch of 4,040 phones will continue to ship out this week. The next batch of 2,400 phones should depart China at the end of this week and these phones will ship to owners next week. We have passed the halfway point of shipping to owners who purchased during the crowdfunding phase.
Updated: Monday 18 January
No major updates to announce. Over 600 phones were shipped to owners on Friday. We are waiting on confirmation that the latest batch of 4,040 phones has arrived at the distribution center, and then they should begin shipment this week to owners.
Updated: Friday 15 January
Fairphone 2 owners received a newsletter yesterday explaining the current delivery schedule:
Paid orders made during the crowdfunding period from July to September should have their phone shipped to them over the next couple weeks in January.
Paid orders made from October to January are now scheduled to ship in February on a rolling basis.
We apologize if your phone will be shipped to you later than we originally planned. This delay is caused because we had a slow start to production ramp-up in December, and we were unable to catch up and meet our previously planned delivery schedule.
Based on our first-come, first-served policy, this means all Fairphone 2 owners who paid for their order in August should soon be receiving an email with tracking information. Phone deliveries over the next two weeks of January will go to owners who paid for their order in late August to September. Soon after, owners who paid for their orders from October to January will receive their phones on a rolling basis in February. Once we stabilize the number of phones produced in China and shipped out of our distribution center each week, we will try to make a more precise outlook when in February the last pre-ordered phones will be shipped. Thank you for your continued patience.
There are over 2,000 phones in inventory at the distribution center to ship out this week, and another 4,400 phones are in transit from China for shipment next week. With the arrival of more phones from China, we are working closely with the distribution center to increase the daily shipment capability, so they can ship out phones to owners as fast as possible.
Updated: Wednesday 13 January
The counter is at 6,677 phones shipped out of the distribution center. There are 2,545 more phones in inventory at the distribution center being prepared to be delivered. We are shipping out phones to Fairphone 2 owners in the order in which they paid their order, and our current deliveries are to owners who ordered in August. We will provide a broader outlook on the delivery schedule to all owners in a newsletter this week.
The next batch of 4,040 phones have passed Chinese customs and is scheduled to fly out by the end of this week.
Updated: Monday 11 January
The distribution center now has inventory of all back cover colors, and phones with blue translucent and blue matte back covers have been shipping out to Fairphone 2 owners since this past Friday. The delivery of phones should now be shipping accurately in the order of your purchase date. Please note: It may take up to 24 hours after your package is picked up by your shipping courier before you receive a notification email with track and trace code.
Now that production is stabilizing, along with the amount of phones that the distribution center is able to pack each day, we are working to give a better outlook of when your phone should ship based on your purchase date. We will be emailing Fairphone 2 owners shortly with this outlook.
For future shipments from China, there is a batch of 2,400 phones expected to arrive at the distribution center tomorrow. The previously mentioned batch of 4,040 phones have not yet left China but are still in the customs process.
Updated: Friday 8 January
The shipping counter stands at 4,632 phones shipped out of the distribution center. All back cover colors are now shipping to owners as blue translucent back covers first shipped out yesterday and *blue matte back covers began delivery today.
A batch of 2,400 phones are in transit from China and should arrive at the distribution center early next week. A batch of 4,040 phones are being prepared at the factory in China to depart soon. By the end of next week, there should be over 11,000 phones shipped to owners or prepared for packing at the distribution center.
*Corrected. 8 January 18:08.
Updated: Wednesday 6 January
Shipment is continuing steadily with 4,000 total phones shipped to Fairphone 2 owners as of today.
All back covers are now in stock at the distribution center, so Fairphone 2’s with a blue back cover will start shipping to owners this week. Phones with blue translucent back covers are shipping tomorrow, and phones with blue matte back covers are planned to ship out by Friday.
We apologize if your color case was previously not available at the distribution center for delivery, but now all back covers are ready to be packed for shipment. Thanks for your patience as we continue delivery to all our Fairphone 2 owners.
Updated: Monday 4 January
As of last week, there were 4,800 phones either shipped out to Fairphone 2 owners or being packed at the distribution center. Since our counter is currently at *2,335 (not including today’s deliveries), then that leaves about *2,500 phones to ship to owners in the coming days.
The next shipments out of China include 2,000 phones currently in transit from China to our distribution center, and one batch of 2,400 phones preparing to fly out of China. In one week’s time, there should be a grand total of 9,200 phones being shipped out to owners or packed in our distribution center.
Additionally, all back covers, including blue matte and blue translucent, will begin shipment to owners by the end of this week.
*Updated on 4 January 18:20, typo in counter number.
Updated: Wednesday 30 December
The shipment of Fairphone 2’s is proceeding steadily. Our counter is currently set at 2,000 phones shipped across Europe to Fairphone 2 owners. We will update the counter tomorrow with today’s deliveries. Tomorrow on New Year’s Eve, the distribution center will not ship any phones due to limited availability of courier services, but they will pack phones which will be ready to be shipped out on Monday 4 January.
Blue matte and blue translucent back covers are now ready to be shipped from China to our distribution center. Inventory of these blue back covers should be available to start shipping out of the distribution center in the first week of January. We’ll update this post once the first blue back covers start shipping to owners.
Our next update will be on Monday 4 January after the holiday weekend. Have a wonderful New Year!
Updated: Monday 28 December
Today, another batch of phones left the distribution center and were shipped to Fairphone 2 owners. The number of shipped phones will be added to our shipping counter tomorrow after we confirm details from the distribution center and couriers. The next batch of 1,600 phones left China and should arrive at our distribution center in the coming days. There are 1,200 phones at the manufacturer expected to leave China tomorrow.
This brings a grand total of 4,800* phones shipped or getting ready to ship out of our distribution center by the end of this week. We are now shipping with three back covers: black matte, black translucent and transparent. Blue translucent and blue matte back covers are expected to ship out of China later this week. Once we get confirmation, we’ll share the shipping details in this blog.
*Updated at 18:00 on 28 Dec. For those doing the math, that’s 200+200+1600+1600+1200 = 4,800 phones.
Updated: Wednesday 23 December
The first batch of 200 phones have shipped across Europe! Where are the first Fairphone 2 owners? Tag your first impressions with #WeAreFairphone on our community wall.
Another batch of 200 phones is shipping out of the distribution center before Christmas. The distribution center now has black matte and black translucent back covers. Previously, we were not certain if the black translucent back covers would be ready to pack in time, but luckily both black covers will be part of the shipment before Christmas.
Up next, there is a batch of 1,600 phones, along with transparent covers, that arrived at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport. These 1,600 phones with black matte, black translucent and transparent back covers are planned to start shipping out on Monday 28 December. In addition, there will be another batch of 1,600 phones leaving China on Saturday 26 December.
Therefore, around 3,200 phones should be shipping next week with black matte, black translucent and transparent back covers. The exact number of shipped phones will depend on the capacity of our distribution center, so we’ll have more information on that next week.
The remaining blue matte and blue translucent back covers do not yet have a delivery date, but we will share an update next week when we have news. We’re happy that production on the assembly line is stabilizing and we’re receiving a higher number of Fairphone 2’s.
Our next update will be after the Christmas break on Monday 28 December. Happy holidays, everyone!
Updated: Monday 21 December
Delivery of the first Fairphone 2’s has begun! Follow the first Fairphone 2 shipment in this live map. Our website’s front page will also feature a shipping counter to show an estimate of phones leaving the distribution center.
Currently, there are around 200 phones shipping across Europe. Another 200 will arrive at the distribution center tomorrow, and 1,600 phones are expected to leave China tomorrow. In total, we expect to ship 1,000 phones to owners before the end of the year. We plan only to ship phones with black matte back covers before Christmas as that is what is available at the distribution center. We don’t have a delivery update on the other back cover colors, but we will update this post when we do.
Below we want to share a few photos from a trip last week to our distribution partner, Rhenus, overseeing the packing of the first Fairphone 2’s.
The first batch of around 200 Fairphone 2’s are packed at the distribution center and ready to be delivered on Monday. This pilot run starts small to test the entire processing and shipping procedure to ensure it is efficient on a larger scale. When team members went there yesterday they were able to improve some sequences of the packing process, fine-tuning steps to make the process faster when larger quantities arrive.
The next phone batch of 200 left China today and is expected at the distribution center on Tuesday. Of the batch of 1,200 previously mentioned in the Wednesday update, only 800 will be shipped because of extra steps added in the quality check process. This shipment is expected to depart China on Monday.
We know these Fairphone 2 quantities may seem low, but the assembly line is still in the “ramp-up phase.” During this phase some processes are still being corrected to make sure the production quantity can reach a level where it is fully stabilized. In other words – the assembly line is not yet operating at the level that is meeting our desired target phone production, but we’re working to that goal so we expect quantities to be higher in the next weeks.
In our newsletter to owners sent yesterday, we explained that phones will be shipping using the back covers that are ready at the distribution center. Currently the only batch available to ship are black matte covers. Other colors are soon to arrive, but only phones with black matte covers will be shipped before Christmas. We will be updating our blog next week with more news about when the other colors should arrive at the distribution center. Have a pleasant weekend, all!
Updated: Wednesday 16 December
The first batch of phones have safely arrived at the distribution center in the Netherlands! Tomorrow, team members will go to these facilities of our distribution partner, Rhenus, in a small town outside Eindhoven.
At this stage, the first batch of 200 phones will be a pilot run to put the entire processing and shipping procedure into practice on a larger scale. They will pack and assemble these phone orders so the whole package will be packed and ready for shipment. By doing so, they can optimize the packing process and make any last corrective measures to improve the process and remain efficient with the arrival of larger quantities of phones. Shipping of this first batch is expected to happen soon after this step, and we’ll keep updating our blog with the progress.
In addition to the current batch of 200 phones at the distribution center, there are another 200 phones on their way out of China tomorrow. The next shipment out of China will be larger, as there are over 1,200 phones produced at our manufacturer to be placed in the shipping queue.
Updated: Monday 14 December
Production is increasing gradually during this ramp-up phase on the assembly line. There have been over 500 phones produced, and the amount of phones in the next days is planned to be higher.
The first batch of around 200 phones are shipped from China and on their way to the Netherlands. This is a pilot run for the distribution center to complete the processing and packing process with a small quantity. These phones should land at Schiphol Amsterdam Airport at 20:43 tonight on flight CA1025.
The operations team will be at our distribution center in the coming days to oversee the first packing process.
Updated: Friday 11 December
The first group of (black matte) back covers were packed and should be picked up soon for shipment to our distribution center in the Netherlands. These back covers are shipped separately from the phones and will be packaged together in our distribution center. No other major updates to announce. We should have more information on Monday regarding how the assembly line is progressing and what that means for phone quantities. Have a good weekend, all!
Originally published: Thursday 10 December
Final assembly has begun! The first batch of Fairphone 2’s is being prepared to depart from our manufacturing partner in China, and start its journey to our distribution center in the Netherlands, and finally to your doorstep.
We are still on track to start delivering phones the week of 21 December as discussed in our last production update. After a long process of developing the Fairphone 2, with a number of prototypes and test pilot phones, the assembly phase marks the last step where the assembly line is formed and line workers start building your phone. During this ramp-up we will gradually increase the number of phones from the factory, making sure it is at a pace that allows us to have a stable amount of units produced per day. You can imagine it’s an exciting time! We are now using all the plans and productions processes developed in the past months and all the people that have been trained are putting their skills to work.


We’ve been asked why certain delays or production issues were not part of our original planning for on-time delivery. In fact, these unexpected circumstances were included in our planning, but there is only so much extra room we can incorporate in our timeline for these issues. We’re now at the point where we do not have any buffer room left to compensate for additional setbacks. To keep you up-to-date with the process, we’re striving to communicate to you as much information on production and delivery that we can. We know it’s frustrating to hear of these delays over the last months, and we appreciate your patience.
While-you-wait, build your own Fairphone 2
If you want to already get your hands on a Fairphone 2, or if you were planning to give it as a gift, we have a “stand-in” foldable phone for you! While you wait, we invite you to practice your arts and crafts skills to build your own Fairphone 2.
Thanks for joining us as we get closer to our big milestone of shipping our Fairphone 2!
Stay tuned for our next update tomorrow. You can also take part in an online event on Tuesday 15 December at 19.00 where we’ll host an open web Q&A about the Fairphone 2 with our product strategist Miquel Ballester.
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