ZTE has officially cancelled the Hawkeye smartphone Kickstarter
Earlier this month, ZTE launched a Kickstarter for a crowdfunded smartphone with ideas taken from their community about what they wanted to see in a new device. This Project CSX phone had a goal of $500,000 to be funded, but ZTE has now cancelled the campaign after only 190 people put forward just under $37,000.
The Hawkeye concept phone was supposed to feature eye tracking to make one-handed use much easier, as well as be self-adhesive to a variety of surfaces. So what is ZTE planning to do with the concept now that the Kickstarter has been officially cancelled? Part of the reason appears to be that consumers weren’t happy with the specs mentioned in the Kickstarter page.
You requested that the winning Project CSX idea – an eye-tracking, self adhesive phone – be implemented on a higher spec’d device than what we initially proposed through Kickstarter. We’ve heard you loud and clear as we are reevaluating the device features that are implemented in to the device.
While the Kickstarter itself is dead, ZTE notes that the Hawkeye smartphone itself is not. They’re taking the idea back to the drawing board to come up with a device with better specs, which means the timeline for release is being pushed back. ZTE says that anyone still interested in this concept phone should head on over to the ZTE Community forums to stay abreast of new information.