ZTE has cancelled the Kickstarter for its ambitious phone called Hawkeye. This comes after a troublesome campaign in which the product didn’t exactly fit consumer expectations. The irony is not lost on us.
Hawkeye, also known as Project CSX, was devised based on how the public saw fit, or so they thought. ZTE collected votes to decide on the product’s marquee features, but the final product pitched on Kickstarter didn’t exactly match up.
Cancelled late in its drive for consumer interest and money, ZTE only managed a small fraction of its fundraising goal. This comes after Jeff Yee stated that the company is listening to feedback and will work to meet customers at eye-level moving forward.
And while a cancelled Kickstarter clearly isn’t great news, ZTE isn’t finished with the project. The company has confirmed that it plans to release a similar offering by the end of 2017, complete with eye-tracking and self-adhesive capabilities, as well as higher-end specifications, the latter of which many felt that ZTE under delivered on with Hawkeye.
Speaking with Engadget, Yee said "This is maybe not exactly what we wanted at this stage, but we are able to swallow our pride and recognize that the specs that we listed were not exactly what the community wanted."
We got our hands on the Hawkeye prototype at CES 2017 and we liked what we saw. Here’s to hoping that ZTE can strike the balance between making exactly what the people want without amping up the price too much during the process.
- Via Engadget
