Half a year after taking preorders for its very first smartphone, RED says that the Hydrogen One phone is still months away from being released. But it does at least have a timeline: the phone is supposed to enter mass production and then ship sometime this summer.
Jim Jannard, RED s CEO and founder, gave the update yesterday afternoon in a post on the company s forums, where he also announced a few new specs for the pricey “holographic-display” smartphone and gave some additional launch details.
RED has apparently managed to get mobile carriers on board for the phone s launch — a sadly difficult and meaningful feat for a first-time phone company — though Jannard wouldn t provide specifics on which carriers. His forum post is filled with seemingly hyperbolic phrases, and when it comes to carriers, that isn t any different. He says carrier support for the Hydrogen One is “unprecedented” and “as good as it gets.” That would appear to imply all of the major US carriers, but it sounds like it could still be months before we find out.
Jannard also says that RED will release preordered phones before carriers phones, since they ll be unlocked and won t have to go through carrier approval processes.
That sounds like it will still be this summer, but like most of the information here, it s a little unclear. Jannard says RED will probably start previewing the phone sometime in April — which means that, yes, people who preordered this phone for $1,195 (or more) still don t know much about it.
