The e-ink YotaPhone 2 is no longer coming to the US

That doesn’t mean it’ll be completely impossible for American Indiegogo backers to get their hands on a phone.

The company is providing two options for those that backed the crowdfunding campaign, which launched earlier this month.

The Indiegogo campaign for the handset raised almost $300,000, with at least 16 backers committing to the $1,050 tier. It met its funding goal before it closed on July 26th. But it seems that it will only be ramping up production with that partner for its next generation device, which has yet to be announced. As such, the company decided to cancel the North American launch of the phone altogether. According to YotaPhone, sticking a US-compatible modem in their phone was more hard than expected. The company explains that “unforeseen delays” related to the production and the delivery of the YotaPhone 2 in the US are to blame for the cancellation.

Despite a successful Indiegogo campaign, the YotaPhone 2 will not be released in North America, which was due to be shipped out starting August. As such, the email adds that “the logistics were insurmountable and the device would simply arrive too late”. These delays would’ve conflicted with Yota Device’s worldwide 2016 device roadmap, meaning that US consumers would be getting their YotaPhone 2 while global consumers would be getting “a newer, cheaper, and better YotaPhone”.

The YotaPhone 2 is an interesting device in that it has two displays: a traditional LCD panel with an e-ink screen on the rear. For those living in the US, this phone will work with major GSM carriers including AT&T and T-Mobile. The unfortunate situation is that it will remain locked to HSPA+ (3G/3G+) bands and will not be active on 4G/LTE. The company says that the refund won’t go back onto your credit card, but will instead be reimbursed directly from Yota Devices to the backers. If you’re not in the US, that’s what you would have gotten anyway. The good news is that they’ve brought on a new manufacturing partner to ensure something like this doesn’t happen again and that they can bring a new YotaPhone – with updated hardware specs – to the US quickly and without any issue.