Librem 5 USA At Shipping Parity: New Orders Ship Within 10 Business Days
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The day we have been waiting for is finally here! The Librem 5 USA has reached shipping parity, which means that new orders placed today will ship within our standard 10-business-day window. The Librem 5 USA now joins the Librem Mini and Librem 14 as a post-Just In Time product, one where instead of relying on Just In Time supply chains to manufacture a product just as we need it, we have invested in maintaining much larger inventories so that we can better absorb future supply chain issues that may come our way.
Welcome to the Librem 5 USA
For anyone who is new to the product, the Librem 5 USA is our premium phone that shares the same hardware design and features as our mass-produced Librem 5, but with electronics we make in the USA using a separate electronics supply chain that sources from US suppliers whenever possible. This results in a tighter, more secure supply chain for the Librem 5 USA. The Librem 5 USA uses the same PureOS as our other computers and so it runs the same desktop Linux applications you might be used to, just on a small screen. PureOS on the Librem 5 USA demonstrates real convergence, where the device becomes more than just a phone, it becomes a full-featured pocket-sized computer that can act like a desktop when connected to a monitor, keyboard and mouse, or even a laptop (or tablet!) when connected to a laptop docking station. All of your files and all of your software remains the same and follows you where you go. Applications just morph from the smaller screen to the larger screen when docked, just like connecting a external monitor to a laptop.
Everyone who has backed the Librem 5 and Librem 5 USA projects hasn’t just supported the production of the hardware itself, they have also supported a massive, multi-year software development effort to bring the traditional Linux desktop to a phone form-factor. Projects such as Phosh (the GUI), Phoc (the Compositor), Squeekboard (the Keyboard), Calls (for calling), Chats (for texting and messaging), and libhandy/libadwaita (libraries to make GTK applications adaptive) all required massive investment and many of these projects have already been moved to the GNOME infrastructure to better share our effort with a larger community. We are delighted to see that many other mobile projects have recognized the quality of our efforts and adopted our software into their own projects.
The Long Road to Shipping Parity
As we mentioned in our previous post on the subject, it has been a long road to get here. Along the way we have had to face numerous delays and supply chain issues from large components like the CPU (which happens to be popular in automotive entertainment systems) all the way down to seemingly insignificant chips that all the same can halt an entire production line if they are absent. Throughout this process component prices have gone up, many significantly, and often we had to pay even more on the spot market for CPUs and other chips so that we could start production back up. In other cases we had to source alternative chips that provided the same functionality. Thankfully we have the in-house expertise to perform this kind of analysis as supply problems came up–not every hardware vendor is as fortunate. Even something as simple as an SD card, which we offer as an accessory, has seen supply chain disruptions.
Librem 5 USA Accessories
In addition to chip supply chain, accessory supply chain is something we are keeping a close eye on as we continue to expand our list of Librem 5 accessories. SD cards are the most popular accessory Librem 5 USA customers add, along with anti-interdiction services and our AweSIM privacy-focused cellular service. In addition we also offer OpenPGP smart cards (which you can use to store GPG keys safely using the built-in OpenPGP smart card reader), privacy screens, and power banks to charge your phone or even your Librem 14 on the go. The Librem 5 USA was designed for longevity and because we support right to repair, we also offer a number of spare parts in our shop, including replacement modems so you can make sure you support all the cellular bands in a particular continent, replacement batteries for when you ultimately wear out your existing battery, and plenty of other spare parts that haven’t had sufficient demand to post formally on our shop (yet). If you need a spare part that isn’t yet on the shop, just ask.
The Spike
The Librem 5 USA isn’t the first product to make the transition into shipping parity. Traditionally we have seen spikes in incoming orders once a product hits shipping parity and we expect the same for the Librem 5 USA. Given all of the supply chain disruptions and other delays, many people do wait until a product is fully in stock with standard lead times before they place their own order to ensure it gets to them in a timely manner. We have been ramping up our production over the past weeks not just to fulfill all the outstanding orders, but to ensure we have a steady supply of phones to prepare for the influx of new orders so that now that we have hit shipping parity, we can maintain it. That said, it doesn’t hurt to order now to ensure you are at the head of the line.
With the Librem 5 USA hitting shipping parity, that only leaves our mass-produced Librem 5 as the final Just-In-Time pre-order product with a long lead time. From the moment we announced Librem 5 USA, we acknowledged that each product would have its own queue due to the different supply chains, manufacturing locations, and the small batch manufacturing of the Librem 5 USA, so it should be no surprise that the Librem 5 USA would hit shipping parity sooner. While we will start a big increase in our mass-produced Librem 5 shipments in a few weeks due to resolving a number of supply chain issues, that line is still an order of magnitude larger than Librem 5 USA and it will still be quite some time before that product hits shipping parity. If you are an existing Librem 5 customers who would like to upgrade to Librem 5 USA and get it immediately, please contact our team to arrange payment and we will ensure your order gets priority.
Purism Products and Availability Chart
| Model | Status | Lead Time | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Librem Key (Made in USA) | In Stock ($59+) | 10 business days | |
 | Librem 5 | In Stock ($699+) 3GB/32GB | 10 business days | |
| Librem 5 COMSEC Bundle | In Stock ($1299+) Qty 2; 3GB/32GB | 10 business days | |
| Liberty Phone (Made in USA Electronics) | Backorder ($1,999+) 4GB/128GB | Estimated fulfillment February | |
| Librem 5 + SIMple (3 GB Data) | In Stock ($99/mo) | 10 business days | |
| Librem 5 + SIMple Plus (5 GB Data) | In Stock ($129/mo) | 10 business days | |
| Librem 5 + AweSIM (Unlimited Data) | In Stock ($169/mo) | 10 business days | |
 | Librem 11 | In Stock ($999+) 8GB/1TB | 10 business days | |
 | Librem 14 | Backorder ($1,370+) | Estimated fulfillment December | |
 | Librem Mini | Backorder ($799+) | 10 business days | |
 | Librem Server | In Stock ($2,999+) | 45 business days |
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