On the way to 10,000 Subscribers!

When I wrote this post last night, our website’s subscriber list stood at 9,367. Sometimes when we get a sudden rise in subscribers it comes as a happy surprise – like this time when I only found out we were over 9,300 from a write-up in the Austrian Der Standard yesterday.

And I’m writing now because – we are almost there. As it looks now, we will begin our pre-sales in May.

We are still working very hard on operations and preparations – lots of detailed issues that are involved with selling a mobile phone – choosing a production partner, testing sample phones, researching logistics, preparing our website for websales.

But dear community members, don’t worry about these things. We’ve got you covered. As soon as we have everything set up for sales, our loyal community of almost TEN THOUSAND will have the first opportunity, before anyone else, to buy the FairPhone. We want to make sure everyone who wants to buy a phone registers now, or we can’t guarantee one for you later.

I keep hearing from people that they want to help – but how? Share! Share our story, our mission, our website, our blog, our updates on Twitter and Facebook. Shout it from the rooftops! To reach more subscribers, and ultimately buyers, we need our community’s help in spreading the word.

Bottom line: if you want to be part of it, register now! And, we can’t wait to identify our 10,000th fan who can expect to be involved in some special campaign plans we have in the coming weeks.

I’ve been getting recurring questions about a few basic issues, so I want to answer some of them here. As for sales, pre-sales are now scheduled for May, with shipping in Autumn. As soon as we have the final specs and confirmed supply chain interventions for this year’s FairPhone, we will release them. In the meantime:

• The phone is an unlocked smartphone that will work with a carrier/operator of your choice
• It will be sold exclusively through our website
• It will use Android Jelly Bean OS (more on that here)
• The price is currently set around 325 euros

Now as I post this to the blog, the official website subscriber number has reached 9,523. I can’t help but keep checking the homepage to see the number tick higher and higher toward 10,000. Soon, very soon, we’ll be able to show you the phone, the final specs, the confirmed supply chain interventions, and oh yeah, give you the opportunity to have one for yourself.

As community manager at FairPhone, I have the privilege of hearing from you all firsthand, from e-mails, Twitter replies, and Facebook messages, and getting to know you and what keeps you passionate about fair electronics.

Now that we’re in the final push, I can’t wait to see how we can mobilize this great community we’ve built. This is our last chance to get the rest of our friends, family, and communities on the subscriber list and involved in our movement for change.

So I leave you with a simple question: Who’s in?

Register at www.fairphone.com/register