X
Indiegogo Shuts Down The Frank Phone's Crowdfunding Campaign

Indiegogo Shuts Down The Frank Phone's Crowdfunding Campaign

By Dominik Bosnjak
September 19, 2017

Indiegogo shut down the crowdfunding campaign for the Frank Phone (also stylized as the frank. phone) earlier this month, with the platform citing terms of use violations as the basis for its decision. No further details on the matter have been given by Indiegogo and the team behind the affordable device has yet to respond to a request for comment as of this writing. The crowdfunding’s platform Trust and Safety division is the one which officially pulled the plug on the Frank Phone’s campaign, consequently preventing the company from accessing its page and accepting donations from backers.

The Indiegogo campaign for the Frank Phone may not have been successfully funded even if it wasn’t suspended, with the device reaching less than a quarter of its fixed $250,000 goal in early September at the point when it already started losing momentum like crowdfunded projects usually do, as evidenced by the company’s tweet below. The Android 7.0 Nougat-powered smartphone was meant to start shipping to backers in January and while that’s unlikely to happen now, it remains to be seen whether this will also be the ultimate end of the Frank Phone or if the Canadian developers still try to fund their project using other means. The latter scenario would possibly defeat the purpose of the product itself, with the Frank Phone being in development since late 2015 and its creators originally envisioning it is an alternative to what they deem are overly expensive devices, having previously encouraged people to back them because “it’s just not frank that the Big Guys charge $1,000 for a product that only costs around $150 to make.”

While that pitch disregarded the research and marketing expenses of major original equipment manufacturers, the initial reception that the Frank Phone received was largely positive, even though it ultimately didn’t come close to its fixed funding goal. In light of the latest developments, anyone who backed the device’s crowdfunding campaign will not be charged, i.e. their money should have already been returned to their card. In case your pledge still wasn’t returned, consider contacting Indiegogo or waiting a few more days.