In April 2015, I joined Fairphone as the Director of Operations. My role covers everything from operations strategy and customer support, to supplier management and production planning. And with the Fairphone 2 well on its way, it’s also my responsibility to keep you updated about our production and delivery schedule.

Currently finalizing pilot build

At the moment, engineering is completing the evaluation of the pilot units. That means that we have now completed most of the development phase, and these pilot phones are the “real deal”: each one is a complete and fully operational Fairphone 2.

In addition, the Fairphone 2 has undergone rigorous testing for performance and compliance, and we are satisfied with the results. We are also about to receive all the necessary certifications to sell our product within the EU. Olivier, our CTO will provide more insight in the entire process and where we are in an upcoming blog post.

First pilot unit transceiver assembled.

Production delay of a few weeks

With testing completed and nearly everything aligned for production ramp-up, we hoped to start assembly on schedule. But then we received the results of the last round of evaluation and we discovered that we needed to do some last minute changes, and with that we had to reorder some complex custom parts.

With the dedicated support of our partner, Hi-P, we’re doing everything in our power to continue to make progress while we wait on the updated components. For example, the factory will pre-assemble everything they can to ensure that the phones make it off the assembly line as fast as possible once the final materials arrive.

Camera modules

First deliveries start in December

Due to this delay, we are now estimating that the final assembly of the last modules will start on 23 November, with the first deliveries to customers taking place at the beginning of December. The phones will be delivered on a first-come, first-served basis. Unfortunately, we can’t guarantee that all phones ordered during the crowdfunding phase (before 1 October) will be delivered by Christmas.

Connector insertion test setup – part of the tests during DVT (Design Validation Testing).We are optimistic that the first 15,000 phones predicted for delivery in November will still arrive in December, despite being the busiest month for couriers. All other pre-orders until we start shipping in December will be delivered in January. At the end of November, I will be able to tell you more about exactly how many phones are being produced each week, and more detailed information about the expected delivery dates in December.

At the end of November, I will be able to tell you more about exactly how many phones are being produced each week, and more detailed information about the expected delivery dates in December.

We would like to thank you for your patience, encouragement and support. As an independent social enterprise, our Fairphone 2 owners keep operations and production going strong as we get closer to delivery of our one-of-a-kind modular phone. In addition to these production updates, we’ll be updating our blog with more news about our social and environmental projects, like our progress to integrate Fairtrade gold in our supply chain.

Thanks again to our community for investing in these programs, and helping us develop a phone that puts social values first!