Indiegogo suspends campaign for "frank." phone after Terms of Use violation

The Sloth · September 20, 2017

Frank phone, what is it?

" The project launched today on Indiegogo, seeking $250,000 in funding to make the phone a reality. At first glance, there doesn't seem anything immediately wrong with the device. For $180, you get a 5.5" 1080p display, an 8-core processor, 4GB of RAM, 64GB of internal storage, a 3,000mAh battery, a microSD card slot, and dual-SIM support. There are a 16MP rear camera and an 8MP front camera, as well as a fingerprint sensor. At the very bottom of the Indiegogo campaign, they discretely mention the processor is a MediaTek 6750T."

where did it go wrong?

starting with the design, they said they designed it from the ground up but in reality its a phone from alibaba

https://leegoog.en.alibaba.com/product/60624676929-802161076/2017_OEM_5_5inch_Industrial_unlocked_4G_3GB_ram_gorilla_galss_MTK6750_lowest_price_china_Android_phone_with_USB_OTG.html?spm=a2700.8304367.prewdfa4cf.1.73152c54mRUHpQ

also they promised software updates to 7.0 " The specs for the 'L608' are identical to the Frank phone - MediaTek M6750 processor, 5.5" 1080p display, dual-SIM, 64GB of storage, and 4GB of RAM. It has the same cameras too - a 16MP back camera and 8MP front camera. The only difference is that this phone is listed as having Android 6.0, while the Frank phone supposedly has 7.0 - more on that later"

by sep 5 it was still running 6.0

All this was going to be done by a software engineering working part-time and two college age kids who are going to school full time and run a full smartphone business on the side, a huge red flag.

CBC and other Canadian media did

the team

stories on them

what happened?

"Unfortunately for the Frank team (and anyone who wanted the phone), Indiegogo has now suspended the project's crowdfunding campaign and automatically refunded all contributions. The page now has this message at the top"

according to IndieGoGo you can't

good news all the bakers got their money back but

they posted this message

http://www.androidpolice.com/2017/09/20/indiegogo-suspends-campaign-frank-phone-terms-use-violation/https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/frank-just-another-f-king-phone-android-smartphone#/

https://leegoog.en.alibaba.com/product/60624676929-802161076/2017_OEM_5_5inch_Industrial_unlocked_4G_3GB_ram_gorilla_galss_MTK6750_lowest_price_china_Android_phone_with_USB_OTG.html?spm=a2700.8304367.prewdfa4cf.1.73152c54mRUHpQ

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/frank-just-another-f-king-phone-android-smartphone#/

https://web.archive.org/web/20170904070144/https://www.frankisaphone.com

https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/9/19/16317088/indiegogo-frank-phone-shut-down-refund

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-teen-launching-180-smartphone-1.4267763

http://pocketnow.com/2017/09/01/frank-is-a-phone-that-will-head-to-kickstarter-on-september-5th-for-180

https://www.forbes.com/forbes/welcome/?toURL=https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2017/09/19/inside-tenors-plan-to-power-gif-sharing-on-every-mobile-phone/&refURL=https://www.google.ca/&referrer=https://www.google.ca/

TLDR- bunch of kids thought they can lie to indigogo and buy and sell bunch of rebranded Chinese phone, they got suspended after they violated terms and service. do your research before jumping ship.

what do you guys think?

WMGroomAK · September 20, 2017

Would say that I was surprised, but not really... Honestly, whenever I look at any of the crowd-sourcing sites, about half to two-thirds look kinda shady. Too many /s remarks that I want to make on this... Any idea on how much they actually raised before the campaign was suspended? If they were just going to be buying sets off of Alibaba, they were either expecting to hit 150% of their goal being raised or need to take some remedial math... Based on the Alibaba site linked, the min order quantity of sets is 3000 which would cost $375,000 at the $125 per set price. Or I could just have that ordering thing on the Alibaba off...