Red delays Hydrogen One titanium phone, offers buyers a free aluminum one
The company apologizes for not making enough phones to keep up with preorders.
The titanium version of the Red Hydrogen One is delayed. But buyers who preordered the phone will get an aluminum one for free in October.
Here's our full review of the Red Hydrogen One phone.
Entitled "The post I don't want to make," Red Digital Cinema founder and chief executive officer Jim Jannard admits in an Red forum posting that "the first run of Ti [was] a disaster."
Ti is the nickname of the titanium version of the Red Hydrogen One phone. Priced at $1,595 (and $1,295 for the regular aluminum model), the Red Phone is hotly anticipated for its top-notch cinematic-quality camera and holographic 3D display. Many popular films including Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, The Martian and Transformers were shot on Red cinema cameras, and the Red Hydrogen Oneis the company's first foray into the mobile industry.
Red announced that it will start shipping the aluminum model starting in October. The titanium model, however, will ship at a later date, with Jannard citing supplier issues. It has been 14 months since users' preorders began for that variant.
"If I were a Ti preorder customer, I would be pretty pissed off," wrote Jannard. "So I assume that is the common reaction for all of our customers in this position."
To help defuse the issue, Red will ship those who preordered the titanium version an aluminum Red Hydrogen phone. When the titanium units are available, the company will send those variants out to the same users for free. Customers are allowed to keep both versions.
Carriers including AT&T , Verizon and Telcel will also sell the phone in aluminum starting in November.
