Shiftphone

The official company name is SHIFT GmbH.[9]

SHIFT is developing smartphones since 2014. In the beginning Carsten and his brother Samuel Waldeck realized the project SHIFT7 through German crowdfunding platform Startnext. The brothers started Shift GmbH, a company with limited liability by German law. Further Shiftphones were launched with model series SHIFT4 and SHIFT5 in 2015. The project grew into a small company with 15 employees in Germany, which collaborated with the Chinese production coordinator company "Vstar and Weihuaxin" in Shenzhen.[11] Since 2018 the company employs 10 workers in an own manufacturing facility in Hangzhou.[12]

In 2016 c't described the Shift5 as a typical cheap smartphone. Besides, the journal argued that there was no evidence that coltan is not used in Shiftphones and thus criticized the transparency of SHIFT. SHIFT and further secondary sources claim that coltan is not in use for their manufacturing.[16] However, according to c't, the SHIFT partner company "Vstar and Weihuaxin" did not provide information about conflict-free material used in Shiftphone. Unlike Shiftphone, Fairphone provides detailed audit reports about component suppliers through a Chinese agency, and also facilitates detailed information on problems and compromises in the supply-chain.[11]

Coltan is used to make components for mobile phones and other electronic devices. A huge part of the ore is from mines in the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo). "Much mining has been done in small artisanal mining operations, sometimes known as Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM). These small-scale mines are unregulated, with high levels of child labor and workplace injury." Approximately around 50,000 children, some just seven years old, work in Congo's coltan mines. Workers hardly have any protection and often work underground in self-made shafts.[17]

Recent reports paint a clear picture: articles by many magazines were able to capture the statements of Carsten Waldeck and prove their credibility accordingly.

For example, golem.de reported in detail on the company and its efforts in terms of sustainability and fairness in June 2018.[18]

The ProSieben magazine Galileo tests the newly published smartphone Shift6m and illuminates, in the form of video recordings, the production conditions of the in-house manufactory located in China in June 2018.[19]

N-tv describes the initial efforts for fairness and sustainability as well as the history of the Shiftphone, in September 2018.[20]

In August of 2018 the ecology portal Utopia.de no longer reports any lack of transparency in regards to Shift's Chinese hardware manufacturing process.[21]

In the issue 15/2018 the computer magazine c't shows a more positive approach on the topic of German smartphone manufacturer Shift, although the report itself turns out to be rather short in comparison to other European hardware providers. [22]

• Official site