Motorola Wants a Smarter Smartphone Market
iFixit

Motorola Wants a Smarter Smartphone Market

Motorola has expanded their DIY repair program with iFixit to Europe

The smartphone industry is in the midst of a major shift. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that consumers are now waiting an average of 2.83 years to upgrade their phones—that’s up from 2.39 years two years earlier. This change in consumer habits is due to a number of factors, but one thing’s for sure: it’s becoming increasingly harder for smartphone manufacturers to stand out. 

Motorola is taking an unprecedented approach to meet customer demands: they want to help fix the phone you already have. In today’s world, a device maker who’s actively working to break the upgrade cycle might seem counterintuitive. But smartphones are here to stay—and Motorola is strategically working for long-term customer satisfaction by prioritizing repair.

In October 2018, Motorola became the first major smartphone manufacturer to support DIY repair by selling consumers replacement parts for its devices through iFixit. Now, they are expanding this program to Europe to provide a better service experience to their customers across all 28 EU countries, as well as Norway and Switzerland. While consumers will still have the option to mail in their broken devices to Motorola’s repair center, they’ll now find everything they need for a DIY fix in the iFixit EU store: high-quality OEM parts, Fix Kits containing all the right tools, plus free step-by-step repair guides in French, German and English on ifixit.com.

Prioritizing repair is not only a consumer-friendly strategy for Motorola, but it also puts them at the forefront of reshaping our throwaway economy.  An in-depth study of the smartphone market conducted by The Ellen MacArthur foundation found that a circular economy could save millions of tons of CO2, improve Europe’s trade balance, and generate hundreds of millions of euros of economic activity.  Motorola is the first major smartphone manufacturer that’s openly supported self-repair, proving that economic interests can peacefully coexist with the needs of our people and our planet. 

Our CEO Kyle Wiens remarks that, “Manufacturers are an important cog in the circular economy wheel—and this announcement helps to remove some of the longstanding barriers between manufacturers and independent repair. Providing consumers with spare parts to repair their devices is one of the most significant steps a company can take to reduce the environmental impact of electronics production.”

Motorola is at the forefront of redefining our relationship with our stuff. We’d say that’s pretty damn innovative—the very thing every smartphone manufacturer wants to be.

Motorola Mobility LLC was acquired by Lenovo Group Holdings in 2015.  Motorola Mobility is a wholly owned subsidiary of Lenovo, and is responsible for designing and manufacturing all Moto and Motorola branded mobile handsets. 

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