Chinese tech giant ZTE has launched a Kickstarter project for ‘Project CSX’ a handset designed with features voted for by users.
Sometime last year, ZTE asked tech fans to get involved with a new project called ‘Project CSC’. The idea was to let smartphone users vote on which features they want to see on a new smartphone so that ZTE could focus its efforts on features customers actually want and make use of.
Once the votes were counted it was revealed that the feature that users wanted to see on a smartphone is Eye Tracking, a feature that would be used to scroll through pages and switch from menu to menu completely hands free. The idea has been tried before, but the ZTE project wants to add side scrolling to the mix, and we believe this will be unique to the device.
Users were also asked to vote on a name with the final device being called the Hawkeye.
Hawkeye will be a completely new phone and while we don’t know what the specs of that device will be we can at least see the eye tracking feature in the Kickstarter video attached.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoHhnOtww2w
As you can see the software works on a current Axon phone so this is more of a software feature rather than hardware so in theory it could be brought to any ZTE smartphone in the future, but if you wanted a ‘Hawkeye’ you can join the Kickstarter campaign now to get a special intro price of just $199.99.
There are more details below in the Press Release
ZTE’s Project CSX Crowdsourced Smartphone Comes to Life through the “Hawkeye” name at CES 2017
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Continuing with the crowdsourced theme, the Hawkeye phone is available for pre-order on Kickstarter today
Las Vegas, Nevada —January 4, 2017—ZTE, a leading global consumer mobile device maker, today announced “Hawkeye” as the winning name of the Project CSX eye-tracking, self-adhesive smartphone device at CES 2017. With 540 name submissions from consumers around the world, the Hawkeye phone is available for pre-order today on Kickstarter at kickstarter.zteusa.com for a discounted price of $199.00.
“Project CSX has been a groundbreaking process and the Hawkeye device sets the stage for us in 2017,” said Lixin Cheng, SVP of ZTE Corporation. “As we move forward with this smartphone, we’ll look to continue to integrate consumers every step of the way.”
Continuing with the crowdsourced theme surrounding Project CSX, the Hawkeye phone is available for pre-order on Kickstarter and is expected to ship globally in Q3 2017.
“With Project CSX, we experimented by turning the typical R&D process on its head and did something completely different within the industry,” said Jeff Yee, vice president of Technology Planning and Partnerships of ZTE USA. “We believe that the Hawkeye name reflects the spirit and vision of ZTE as we continue to put the consumer first throughout this entire process and will continue to do so in every phone we deliver.”
Project CSX kicked off at CES 2016 when ZTE announced its plans to completely crowdsource a mobile device that the company promised to build in 2017. In October 2016, thousands of consumers from 176 countries selected the winning concept, a device that aims for an easier and smoother user experience with eye-tracking capabilities and a self-adhesive back.
To learn more about ZTE and to keep up with the latest Project CSX developments visit csx.zteusa.com or to become a member of Z-Community, visit community.zteusa.com.
I wonder what attracts these multi-billion companies to crowdfunding platforms, when they could afford to release dozens of models a year.
Could it be that they seek additional advertising as Western news papers usually cover Kickstarter hits ? Yep. Could this phone be a gimmick in which they don’t want to invest a dime, so they seek crowdfunding ? Yep.
Time will tell.
I wonder what attracts these multi-billion companies to crowdfunding platforms, when they could afford to release dozens of models a year.
Could it be that they seek additional advertising as Western news papers usually cover Kickstarter hits ? Yep. Could this phone be a gimmick in which they don’t want to invest a dime, so they seek crowdfunding ? Yep.
Time will tell.
You might be right, but, seriously, I don’t think that $500000 is enough money to make a new phone from scratch, check out the Ubuntu Edge campaign, they were asking for a whooping 32 million bucks to make their smartphone. The only successful kickstarter smartphone I can think of is the Nextbit Robin, but they admitted that their kickstarter was made more to generate interest and hype towards the phone, rather than securing funding, which they had already had before the campaign
You might be right, but, seriously, I don’t think that $500000 is enough money to make a new phone from scratch, check out the Ubuntu Edge campaign, they were asking for a whooping 32 million bucks to make their smartphone. The only successful kickstarter smartphone I can think of is the Nextbit Robin, but they admitted that their kickstarter was made more to generate interest and hype towards the phone, rather than securing funding, which they had already had before the campaign