Dual-screen YotaPhone: Gimmicky or next big thing?

A Russian company is out with a dual screen smartphone called the YotaPhone. It comes with all the features you'd expect on the front side, but on the back side it has an electronic "paper" screen -- the kind you find on e-readers.

So why include an e-reader screen? Many people like them for long-form reading, Dan Ackerman, senior editor for CNET, explained on "CBS This Morning." 

"They're easy to read," he said. "They're easy on the eyes, and they don't use a lot of battery power, so you can just leave it up all the time and it's not going to kill your phone battery."

The phone, Ackerman said, is "kind of gimmicky," but it is one of the devices that other companies are keeping an eye on as they're trying to figure out what the next big thing is going to be in the phone market.

"We've hit a plateau," Ackerman said. "All the phones are kind of the same -- these big glass slabs with a five-inch screen, they take good photos, they go on the Internet, they have fast connections. So what's the next step? It's hard to figure out what the next big leap forward is, and this is at least a candidate."

The Russian phone is currently not available in the U.S. and there are no plans to bring it here, according to Ackerman. He explained, "You kind of need a deal with a big carrier to get that subsidized $200 price because right now it's $600 -- the same as pretty much any phone is if you buy it off contract. I don't think they have the clout to get in with the American carriers yet."