ZTE's Hawkeye, the self-adhesive, eye-tracking smartphone that was the winning concept in the company's Project CSX, is not off to a good start.
After the world's first crowdsourced smartphone was unveiled earlier this year at CES 2017, a Kickstarter campaign was launched to fund the further development and production of the Hawkeye. However, the crowdfunding campaign is not performing as well as ZTE had hoped.
ZTE Hawkeye Specs
When the Hawkeye was unveiled at CES 2017 and its Kickstarter campaign launched, not much was known about its specs. It was known that the Android 7.0 Nougat-powered smartphone will have a 5.5-inch full HD display with two unlocked SIM slots, dual rear cameras, a large battery with Quick Charge support, and expandable memory. All other information such as its processor and RAM were not yet revealed then.
With so little information on the Hawkeye, it was as if ZTE was banking on the the device's self-adhesive, eye-tracking characteristics to gain backers for the smartphone. To gain additional support, ZTE then updated the Hawkeye's Kickstarter page to reveal that the smartphone will pack an octa-core 2.0 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor. The device will also have 3 GB of RAM with expandable memory of 32 GB, along with an 8-megapixel front camera and a dual-lens rear camera with 13 megapixels and 12 megapixels.
ZTE Kickstarter Failure
As of the time of writing, the Hawkeye's Kickstarter campaign has only raised nearly $37,000 of its goal of $500,000 with 25 days to go.
In response to the low level of support being shown to the Hawkeye, ZTE's vice president of planning and partnerships Jeff Yee uploaded a post on the official Project CSX forums to apologize for the mid-range specifications of the smartphone.
In Yee's post, he stated that the company has acknowledged the mistake that it made in incorporating mid-range specifications into the Hawkeye, as ZTE wanted the device to reach as many consumers as possible to be able to share the winning concept of the smartphone crowdsourcing project.
Yee admitted that the mid-range specifications of the Hawkeye may not have met the expectations of the people who have supported Project CSX from the beginning, as users wanted the smartphone to have flagship-level components.
ZTE is now in a major dilemma, as an introductory price of $199 has already been set for the Hawkeye. The company could still change the specs of the smartphone, but the price is already set in stone. As such, ZTE is asking for the most important things that can be done to improve the specifications of the Hawkeye, while taking into account the $199 price tag for the device.
What's Next For Hawkeye?
In keeping true with the crowdsourcing theme for Hawkeye, ZTE has launched a poll to ask users on what is the one thing they would want to be changed regarding the smartphone. The most popular option so far is to swap the Snapdragon 625 with Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 835 processor, which has the possibility of saving the device from failure.
However, given the fact that the pledged funds will not be given to ZTE if it fails to raise $500,000 by the end of the campaign, ZTE could simply let the campaign run its course and re-launch it with the expected specifications by users for the Hawkeye.
