The dual-screen e-paper/LCD YotaPhone 2 has a sufficiently interesting gimmick that it was able to rack up almost $300,000 on Indiegogo last month. However, the Russian smartphone maker has reached out to backers to share some sad news. It is unable to get the North American variant manufactured in a timely manner, so it's cancelling the device entirely.

The YotaPhone 2 already exists in multiple international markets, but the crowdfunding campaign was intended to make a North American version a reality. Yota alleges its manufacturing partner dropped the ball and wouldn't be able to deliver the device until significantly after the August time frame promised on Indigogo. This would apparently interfere with Yota's device roadmap as it plans to have new devices out in 2016, thus, the phone was cancelled.

Backers of the campaign paid at least $500 to get their hands on the dual-screen phone. They are being offered two options. Yota will send an international version of the YotaPhone 2, which will only work on HSPA+ in the US. If you're not in the US, that's what you would have gotten anyway. Alternatively, the company will offer a refund. However, it hasn't worked out the logistics of how it will offer the refunds yet. It can't simply refund the credit card from Indiegogo, so it's going to need to do some sort of direct reimbursement. Sounds messy.

Source: The Verge