Chinese smartphone manufacturer ZTE has recently cancelled their crowdsourced smartphone. This phone was part of a project where the consumers were given the opportunity to decide on what the phone's specs will be. ZTE did get a response from the people but not enough to have the company pursue the said project.
ZTE Kickstarter Campaign
The Kickstarter campaign was called Hawkeye and it did receive some unconventional suggestions from the consumers. This includes eye-tracking technologies and hardware materials that would allow the phone to stick to surfaces. Nevertheless, the amount of people who have pledged on the project did not meet the target figure. As per BBC, with just over a day to go, ZTE only had $36,000 worth of pledges. This is way less than the $500,000 target that the company has set.
According to Android Police, ZTE's decision to cancel the campaign may be a way to save its integrity. Back in January, ZTE revealed the Hawkeye to the consumers. However, the feedback that the company received wasn't all that positive. Apparently, the people think that that the phone did not meet the expectations. ZTE asked for more feedback but the suggestions generally boils down to one thing - making the smartphone more expensive without charging more. With that said, the Kickstarter project may have become non-achievable for that reason.
ZTE Cancels Project Hawkeye
The supposed $199 smartphone only got 190 pledges which is way too far from the target. With that, ZTE is ending the Kickstarter project and the people who pledged will be able to get their money back. Nevertheless, ZTE said that it still wants to implement the suggested ideas in the future. However, with the Hawkeye project being canceled, there is no longer an assurance as to when this would happen. It was said that the hands-free nature of the project phone, especially its eye-tracking feature, may have caused people to be skeptical about it since the technology is fairly new in the industry. The phone may have looked too good to be true with its dual rear camera and sticky hardware.
