Putting the Smart back into Smartphones
Hardly a week goes by this time of year without a major product launch event by Apple, Google, Amazon, or another tech giant. Perhaps none bigger than the release of the iPhone X — the tenth anniversary model of the iPhone. Local TV stations around the world will roll their remote trucks to film how many are camping out in line to be the first to get the latest model.
The first decade of the smartphone has indeed brought tremendous change in what we can do with the devices we carry around with us each day. Since the first iPhone, more than 8 billion smartphones have been manufactured. I now have more computing power in my back pocket than could fit in an entire room when I was growing up, and for better or worse, available 24 hours a day.
Despite the amazing innovations these devices contain, we need Apple and others to chart a far different path in the next decade, moving away from the wasteful business model that demands more and more of our planet’s resources yet ensures each new phone model quickly becomes out of date. Sadly, the average length of time smartphones stay in our pockets is just slightly more than two years.
This two year lifespan is neither coincidence, nor necessity. Frustratingly, Apple, Samsung, and other device manufacturers have increasingly chosen design pathways that subtly move us to purchase an entirely new phone, rather than keeping the one we have functioning longer. These decisions include designing products that are more fragile, yet harder to repair when they break, and products that can’t be upgraded, slowing to a crawl when you’ve run out of storage or upgrade to the latest operating system.
The poor designs that make repair challenging also make it harder for recyclers to disassemble the device for recycling once we get rid of it. When we ditch our smartphone or other electronic devices for a new one, it never really goes away, but instead contributes to the estimated 65 million metric tonnes of electronic waste we will produce each year. Enough to bury San Francisco at a depth of 14 feet!
On a planet of finite resources and daily reminders of rising temperatures, we cannot continue to design for the dump. This constant churn of “smart” devices may be great for the share price of Apple, Samsung, Amazon and others, but is incredibly wasteful, unnecessary, and is having a significant impact on the health of the planet. We need device manufacturers to challenge their engineers to innovate beyond the linear “take, make, waste” status quo production model, enabling us to reduce our footprint on this planet, not consume more of it. It’s not a new thinner model phone we need, but a new circular and renewably powered business model. As it stands, for most mobile devices, as much as 80% of their lifetime greenhouse gas footprint comes from manufacturing, not our use of them.
Luckily, there are some signs of higher innovation and even a different business model. Just last month, Dutch smartphone manufacturer Fairphone announced it was offering a much improved camera for its smartphone. But rather than require replacing their entire phone, Fairphone is offering a new camera module that customers can install themselves!
We’ve already seen internet companies like Apple, Facebook, Google and others leading the charge to adopt 100% renewable energy, becoming one of the largest drivers in renewable energy globally. But of the companies who make our devices, only Apple has extended its 100% renewable commitment to include their global supply chain and manufacturing footprints.
Rather than “innovation” that is measured by fewer millimeters and more megapixels, we need devices that are designed to be easily repaired and upgraded, manufactured with renewable energy, and with components and materials that can safely be reused again and again to make new phones. This would be an announcement worthy of some fanfare or camping out in line for.
To learn whether Apple, Samsung, Google and other electronics brands are taking action to reduce the impact of their devices, check out Greenpeace’s Guide to Greener Electronics.
