Understanding Technology: Fairphone's Hardware and Software

This Understanding Technology portfolio presents a comprehensive analysis of Fairphone, a company known for its ethical and sustainable approach to smartphone production. The assignment includes a PowerPoint presentation (Task 1) detailing Fairphone's hardware and software compared to competitors, focusing on its unique design and features. Task 2 explores the role of social networking and the 'wisdom of crowds' in enhancing digital marketing strategies for businesses, examining how these elements can be leveraged to improve brand awareness and customer engagement. Finally, Task 3 delves into Fairphone's innovative approaches to fostering a fair and sustainable economy, discussing its use of ethical materials, long-lasting designs, and commitment to improving worker conditions and promoting recycling, all contributing to its vision of minimizing environmental impact and maximizing social responsibility. The portfolio includes screenshots, discussions, and references using the Harvard referencing style.

Understanding Technology
(UTEC3015)
Name:
Student Number:
Lecturer name:
Autumn 17
Assessed Learning Outcomes:
1. Describe the scope of hardware and software currently in use
and the technological advances taking place.
2. Describe ways in which computing science and information
technology can contribute to the sustainability of economic,
human and natural resources.
3. Describe the relationships between digital computing
networks and wider digital cultures and society.

Assignment Questions
This is your Understanding Technology Portfolio. Please save a copy on your computer
and back it up regularly (e.g. by saving it on your computer / in the cloud (e.g. Google
Drive) / emailing it to yourself). At the end of the course, you need to submit this
electronic copy via the GSM Student Portal. Please refer to suggested word counts for
each task included within this portfolio.
Week Contents Page Learning
outcomes
Week 1-3 Prepare a power point presentation (no more than 8
slides) on the hardware and software used by Fairphone
and how it compares to other phones on the market.
Visit: https://www.fairphone.com/
Your presentation should be aesthetically designed with
images and short bullet points.
Place screenshots of your presentation in the portfolio.
4 LO1
Week 4-6 Discuss the role of social networking and the wisdom of
crowds in helping businesses to improve their digital
marketing strategies.
Note: You can include the following features: subheadings,
bullet points, charts and graphs as relevant.
5 LO2
Week 7-10 Discuss the innovative approaches that contribute to
Fairphone’s vision of a sustainable and fair economy.
6 LO3
Task 1- Presentation task
Prepare a power point presentation (no more than 8 slides) on the hardware and
software used by Fairphone and how it compares to other phones on the market.

Your presentation should be aesthetically designed with images and short bullet
points.
Place screenshots of your presentation in the portfolio.
Title: Fairphone – Hardware and Software
(Presentation (no more than 8 slides), Description (word count: suggested 500
words))

Slide note: This company uses creative and innovative approaches to do things in a different
and unique manner. Its ambition is to maintain a fair economy and pay attention to the human
values (Marc-lemenestrel.net 2017). Fairphone uses several approaches such as use of fair
materials, long-lasting designs, reuse, recycle and maintain good and safe working conditions
for contributing to its vision of a fair and sustainable economy.

Slide note: The design of this operating system is similar to the Lollipop version of Android
but it has some differences in the appearance and some additional new features.
The battery of this operating system works in a smarter way so that it can be saved for the
important tasks and applications. The doze feature puts the device to sleep when it is not in
use. It provides security in a simplified manner via fingerprint unlocking systems.

Slide note: Edge swipe:
It helps to keep the home screen clean and access important apps only when the users need
them.
Privacy impact
It uses an algorithm to calculate the level of impact which is high, medium or low.

Slide note: Fairphone develops phones that can be repaired easily and recycled without
harming the environment (Proske et al. 2016).

Task 2- Discussion
Discuss the role of social networking and the wisdom of crowds in helping
businesses to improve their digital marketing strategies.
Note: You can include the following features: subheadings, bullet points, charts
and graphs as relevant.
Title: Effect of social networking and wisdom of crowds on digital marketing strategies
(word count: suggested 500 words)
Introduction
Social networking is considered to be a practice of using social media sites for
increasing the number of social as well as business contacts (Scott 2015). Wisdom of
crowds can be defined as a concept that says that ideas provided by large group of
people regarding decision making, problem solving, predicting and innovating are
comparatively smarter and better than the idea provided by an individual (Martinez and
Walton 2014). The role of wisdom of crowds and social media networking in
improving digital marketing strategies has been discussed below.
Role of Social Networking and “Wisdom of Crowds”
Social networking plays a significant role in improving the digital marketing strategies
of businesses. It is considered to be a cost effective technique for creating brand
awareness. Social media helps businesses to increase their visibility and expand their
reach across the world (Castronovo and Huang 2012). Social networking helps
businesses to increase their brand recognition by engaging broad audience over the
social media. Businesses can create their social media pages and share posts that can be
introduced into new network of people. Business partners, sponsors and employees can
share and like the business pages for increasing brand awareness and getting potential
customers. Social networking helps to create voice for the companies (Tiago and
Veríssimo 2014). Viral propagation through social media helps to promote the brands
in an effective manner. Social networking helps in improving digital marketing
strategies by facilitating interaction with the potential customers via Facebook and
other social media sites, by selling video, text ads and banners and by displaying
advertisements via sites such as YouTube which is a site that has user generated
contents.
Smart businesses and organizations have been able to solve complex business
problems by utilizing collective ideas and intelligence of the online communities.
Gaining inputs and ideas from online communities by using social media is considered
to be effective and affordable. Wisdom of crowds helps businesses to solve dilemmas
and understand the preferences of the customers (Gatautis and Vitkauskaite 2014). It
helps to track online reviews and suggestions and facilitates the businesses to
overcome their weaknesses and develop effective business strategies for its growth.
Firms are able to establish good relationships with the customers and get an
understanding about the performance of their products and services through the

wisdom of the crowds. It helps businesses to improve their quality of products as well
as services and improve customer satisfaction. Online communities help the companies
to understand their weaknesses and gives suggestion about improving the current
position by overcoming their loopholes. Wisdom of crowds help companies to
understand where they are going wrong and helps to improve their digital marketing
strategies.
Conclusion
The above discussion concludes that the wisdom of crowds and social networking play
a significant role in digital marketing. Social media helps the businesses to create
brand awareness and increase the reach of the business. Social marketing helps in
improving the digital marketing strategies. Wisdom of crowds also plays a major role
in improving digital marketing strategies through online communities and suggestions.
Task 3- Discussion
Discuss the innovative approaches that contribute to Fairphone’s vision of a
sustainable and fair economy.
Title: Fairphone’s approach to a fair and sustainable economy (word count: suggested
500 words)
Fairphone is a well reputed social enterprise that aims to design and produce
smartphones by creating minimal impact on the environment. The main objective of
this company is to create positive environmental and social impact from the initial
stage to the last stage of the life cycle of a phone (Wernink and Strahl 2015). This
company uses creative and innovative approaches to do things in a different and unique
manner. Its ambition is to maintain a fair economy and pay attention to the human
values (Marc-lemenestrel.net 2017). Fairphone uses several approaches such as use of
fair materials, long-lasting designs, reuse, recycle and maintain good and safe working
conditions for contributing to its vision of a fair and sustainable economy.
Fairphone makes use of fair materials for bringing a positive change in the supply
chain of materials. It is trying to create demand for those materials that are supposed to
be good for the people and the planet. This company is trying to create awareness for
incorporating better resources into the designs of smartphones. Fairphone was focused
on finding investors who wanted to contribute to a fair and sustainable economy
(Fairphone.com 2017). Its focus is on innovative and disruptive business models that