Revamped founder Peter Windischhofer was not critical of the iPhone’s presentation at all. “We don’t need thinner, better iPhones, without buttons and with more cameras,” he says. “We need mobile phones that last longer and are easier to repair.”
He has to know. As a sales platform, Refurbed specializes in selling used electronic devices that are fully technically repaired. The idea has now established itself as a bestseller across Europe. The Austrian company is now fighting powerful companies that design products so that they are difficult to repair.
Windischhofer believes that the innovations expected from the iPhone 15 are “marginal.” “In reality, ‘newest’ is old hat,” he says. “Every year, the way Apple tries to sell the changes to the iPhone to consumers comes back and forth with big news.”
The only real innovation that will be available is the USB-C port. This is because the European Union imposed this change in order to achieve the goal of standardized plugs. Windischhofer: “These devices will come in the form of slow USB 2.0, which was actually introduced in 2000.” He criticizes that everyone will then have to buy a faster charging cable themselves if necessary, thus wasting more resources.
‘Manufacturers won’t rethink’
The businessman appeals that a rethink must happen among consumers. “Manufacturers wouldn’t do that because it would be fundamentally against the nature of their business.” The famous research institute Fraunhofer Austria has determined the number of resources used by cell phone production. iPhone 11 was used for this purpose. 12,075 liters of water were used to extract and produce the materials, and 56.9 kg of carbon dioxide was emitted.
In this regard, Windishofer is certain that the unveiling of the new model tonight at 7 pm will be “the richest and most innovative form in terms of design of wasting global resources”, while achieving climate goals is becoming more and more urgent.
According to Refurbed, Fraunhofer’s numbers, stable on the iPhone 14, result in 1 billion liters of water and 4.5 million tons of carbon dioxide, which have been consumed or emitted with about 80 million units sold since September 2022.
