Circular Economy and the 13 SHIFTcycles – Part 4 relate

26. Apr 2023

relate – relate

We feel connected to everyone involved in the process of production and use. It’s about appreciation for our people on the shop floor and beyond, and our relationship with our customers. For us, selling a SHIFT is the beginning of a relationship, not an end Distribution. At the same time, we would like to see an appreciative attitude towards the purchased product, so that the device can be used for as long as possible.

Relationship with our employees

Fair and pleasant working conditions are important to us for all of our employees. Especially with the employees involved in production in China. Questionable working conditions in the technology industry in China are repeatedly reported in the media. It is therefore a matter close to our hearts to effect changes on site. With our own manufacture, we can make these changes possible and create pleasant working conditions and guarantee fair payment for our employees.
As a result, we are also in close contact and exchange ideas with each other every week. In addition, part of the development team travels to Hangzhou at regular intervals to spend time together, cultivate relationships and exchange information on the latest developments. During the peak phase of the corona pandemic, we had to pause our visits to China, so we are all the more looking forward to the next trip to the SHIFT manufactory.

Relationship with SHIFT customers

We may have surprised you with a “you” in an e-mail. We don’t call you first out of a lack of respect, but to express that we share the same values and are a community at eye level. For us, maximizing profits in customer contact does not play a role, we see the potential to build a trusting relationship.
We notice again and again how you place this trust in us. Especially in the crowdfunding phases of our products, we take the leap of trust very seriously. The joint realization of a product is what makes these phases so special. Because, as is so often the case, things only achieve their beauty when they are shared. As a thank you for the trust you have placed in us, we offer our pre-orderers discounted pre-order prices and provide insights into the development phases of the products.
Also, we enjoy every SHIFTtalk where you give feedback and us with questions. This shows us that we can achieve a lot as a small company and that we have taken the right path.

Appreciation towards products

In the context of technical devices, relationship is not the right term for us, you know our warning notice that adorns the back of every SHIFT product:
“WARNING: Smartphones can be time killers. There is no greater gift for you today than the next 24 hours. Use them wisely. People are more important than machines”.
However, out of love for our environment, we would like to appreciate the devices. In order to make consumption more sustainable, we also have a responsibility to deal with the products we buy accordingly.
In this Blog post.

Circular Economy and the 13 SHIFTcycles – part 3 redesign

30. Mar 2023

The biggest (adjusting) screw in the development of smartphones is on the back of the device.

redesign – redesign, redesign

Even before Samuel and Carsten founded SHIFT, they were enthusiastic about technology and innovative ideas. With each of these products, one crucial point was increasingly missing – a fair and sustainable product design. You can read about everything that makes up a product design here. But not only the technologies became more and more efficient and faster, marketing also expanded, while the leaps in innovation became smaller and smaller. To this day, profit maximization is the top priority for most tech companies. Our goal is to orient our thoughts and actions towards the common good of society, i.e. for us: maximizing meaning instead of maximizing profit. We strive for this maximization of meaning through a modular design and fair working conditions.

Modularity as a design concept

If a smartphone ends up in the garbage due to a defective battery, the term “smart” should be questioned. Because a nice smartphone for the garbage is an ugly problem for our planet. Smartphones and tablets are usually not modular, i.e. the modules in the device are glued together, which makes repairs difficult and sometimes impossible. As a result, users cannot repair their devices and have to switch to a new device.

With modularity, on the other hand, the modules are connected to one another by means of plug-in connections. Depending on the model, up to 23 components can be exchanged on a SHIFTphone. Our A-frame (display unit) and B-frame (device frame) are also not glued together, but fixed with screws of the same size. All you need to open the device is a screwdriver. The structure of the device is based on repair statistics, i.e. the defect that occurs most frequently in a smartphone is the easiest and fastest to fix. According to repair statistics, the display is the most common defect. You can see how easy it is to change a display here:

Modularity means fairness

A modular design is not only “fair” to the environment, but also to the users. Reparability allows users to extend the useful life of their devices. The obsolescence of a product, which means that certain functions are no longer available, is referred to as obsolescence. In the technology sector, products are developed where the manufacturers consciously accept obsolescence. When products are manufactured and designed to have a shorter lifespan, it is called planned obsolescence. You can read more about this topic in our blog “Spring cleaning: Your Read the article against obsolescence”.