📱 2022-09-04 16:06:09 – Paris/France.
Robert Triggs/Android Authority
HMD Global announced three new smartphones and one tablet at IFA 2022: Nokia X30 5G, Nokia G60 5G, G31 and T21 tablets. The four products cover a variety of price points, from mid-range to ultra-budget. All good handsets, but the most interesting development was the launch of HMD's eco-subscription model called Circular. We caught up with Adam Ferguson, Global Head of Product Proposition at HMD, to find out more about it.
At its basic level, Circular rents you a smartphone for a monthly fee, costing between £10 and £25 (~$12 – $29) depending on the model. Additionally, HMD takes responsibility for the phone once you're done with it, either recycling it into the program, donating it to charity, or recycling it completely. The upside is that you earn 'Seeds of Tomorrow' to spend on good causes, such as planting trees or providing mobile connectivity to places in need. The rewards increase the longer you keep the handset. It's a new way to pay for a phone, especially if these causes match your personal concerns.
See also: The best Nokia phones you can buy right now
“People buy a Nokia phone because they want to keep it for a long time and because they want it to last,” Adam begins, before explaining that Circular was born from the desire to reward customers for “doing something 'they already want to do it anyway'. “Combined with the Nokia brand's focus on sustainability and multi-year eco-partnerships with brands like Ecovadis and Ecologi, Circular attempts to combine its commitment to sustainability with what HMD sees as growing demands from consumers and possible new subscription models.
Circular reinvents the smartphone buying paradigm and puts sustainability at the heart of its concerns.
While the appeal is clear for extremely environmentally conscious people, Circular has its work cut out to prove that subscriptions and rewards are the business model of the future, let alone prove that it can solve successfully address the industry's growing e-waste problem.
Saving the planet doesn't come cheap
Robert Triggs/Android Authority
For example, Circular charges a premium over an outright purchase. Picking up the Nokia X30 5G for €30 per month (~$29) and keeping the phone through its full three-year update cycle would cost €1 (~$080) for a phone with a retail price of 1 € (~$075). It's a hard pill to swallow for those who demand maximum tech for their money and certainly breaks with the traditional payment models customers are familiar with, especially since there's no path to ownership. actual product.
However, it is perhaps unfair to consider the cost entirely in terms of hardware investment. “If something goes wrong, you can just phone and it will be replaced,” says Adam, “we'll take care of you. HMD will replace a lost or broken handset twice before asking questions, even for its cheaper models. “We try to put as much warranty as possible into our range,” he explains. By comparison, insurance policies from other manufacturers, such as Apple Care, can cost hundreds of dollars, with notable deductibles to pay if you actually need the service.
Read more: What are your best options for phone insurance?
While Circular's warranty is great for peace of mind, it's not the complete solution to keeping phones in service for as long as possible. To do this, consumers need easy access to affordable repairs, or better yet the right to repair devices themselves, but these causes do not easily align with a subscription model. The elusive removable battery wouldn't hurt either. HMD says it may have more to announce on that front next year. Here is the hope.
Extended warranties alone do not necessarily meet the growing demand for keeping devices working longer.
“You may be planning to keep a handset for three years… but what if you can't afford it anymore? Adam points out that Circular is also a flexible subscription. After the first three months, subscribers are free to quit, upgrade or downgrade their handset. Adam continued, “Obviously we want them to keep the individual phone longer, so that's what the incentives are for. But if they want to change, they must be able to do so.
Circular offers subscribers a degree of freedom that is hard to find elsewhere. If we can't have a proper right of repair, maybe a right of return is the best thing? Knowing that a device we no longer need will be given new life or recycled properly.
Yet this is potentially the main disadvantage of the circular model compared to more mainstream subscriptions; you will never own the device. You cannot trade it, sell it, or pass it on to a friend at the time of the upgrade. You invest in insurance, “primer” programs and the promise to recycle down the line rather than hardware that is actually yours. However, this gives HMD the ability to guarantee what will happen to the device once you return it, as they technically own it.
The circular covers subscribers for their insurance and their ecological concerns.
Although there are other manufacturer return and exchange systems, they do not always guarantee what will happen to a device. “We will guarantee that if it's at the end of its life, it will be recycled,” Adam says, “or if it's not and could be useful elsewhere, it will. Reusing and recycling handsets is an important part of tackling the e-waste problem and central to Circular's model. Of course, there are many non-subscription methods that allow you to donate or recycle that old cell phone instead.
Updates and longevity go hand in hand
Robert Triggs/Android Authority
Then there's the cause of updates, of course. Three years of OS upgrades and security patches for the X, G, and L series are okay, but far from the best in the business. But just two years on low-end C models is obviously well short of what's needed for safe long-term use, making the eco-conscious angle somewhat redundant. HMD acknowledges that updates are important, but it hasn't had the best track record for speed. In fact, the company doesn't seem to agree — based on its internal data — that updates are necessarily a hindrance for consumers using their devices longer.
“People cling to devices for different reasons… some cling to an X-Series device for the very reasons we talk about in Circular,” Adam notes. It also suggests that customers can keep low-end C-series devices just to avoid the cost of buying another device, especially in different markets. While probably true, this is tantamount to shitting away from the responsibility of protecting customers for the very long term. There's clearly a limit to the update resources HMD can throw at its very budget-friendly products, but the long-term revenue generated by a subscription model should allow the company to go one step further.
Security updates are an important part of long term support and HMD could do a little better.
Updates aside, HMD Global's eco-friendly subscription model seems like a good start, especially when compared to increasingly popular but relatively lightweight eco-friendly claims, such as paper packaging and dropping a boxed charger. Yet Circular is a very different way of thinking about owning a smartphone, or lack thereof. It won't suit power users or thrifty customers, and HMD's subscription certainly can't align with the lofty goals of Right to Repair. Instead, it's for those looking for a simple, end-to-end option that includes an extended warranty, addresses some durability issues, and gives something back to good causes.
“We tried to keep the consumer and their needs at the very heart of it all,” notes Adam. “It's a new way to buy phones, get devices returned and massively reduce waste. It will make a demonstrable difference in the long run. Time will tell if HMD is onto something here.
Comments
SOURCE: Reviews News
Do not hesitate to share our article on social networks to give us a solid boost. 📱