Red gives stupid excuse for why its ‘holographic’ Hydrogen One failed

Red’s overpriced Hydrogen One and its gimmicky “holographic display” (more like headache-inducing, glasses-free 3D screen) was a disaster before it even launched. 

But why did one of the most hyped phones of 2018 end up being the worst tech product of last year? And where the heck is the promised modular attachment that’s supposed to turn the phone into a cinema-grade camera?

After months of silence, Red founder Jim Jannard’s offered an explanation. Jannard pins the phone’s failure on the hardware manufacturer Red selected to build the phone. Instead of owning up to Red’s own poor design choices, the company’s deflecting blame on its outsourced help.

In a forum post, Jannard said the Hydrogen One has “proven to be the single most challenging program I have ever been a part of.”

Jannard goes on to shift the Hydrogen One’s failure to Red’s ODM partner (original design manufacturer), which was “responsible for the mechanical packaging of our design including new technologies along with all software integration with the Qualcomm processor.” 

“Getting our ODM in China to finish the committed features and fix known issues on the Hydrogen One has proven to be beyond challenging,” Jannard said. “Impossible actually. This has been irritating me to death and flooding our reactor.”

With the ODM reportedly having dropped the ball, Jannard said Red’s now shifting focus to developing a successor to the Hydrogen One, aptly called the “Hydrogen Two.”

In other words, Red messed up big time with the Hydrogen One and now everyone who bought one has to live with the device’s crappy Android software interface, poor 3D “holographic display,” and mediocre camera image quality that will likely never get better with software updates.

“The Hydrogen Two is being methodically designed and crafted to surprise and exceed expectations… again, just as you would expect from us,” Jannard said. I’ll believe it when I see it.

Image: raymond wong / mashable

As for the camera module attachment — one of the key selling points of the Hydrogen One — Jannard said they had to redesign it because the original one they were working on failed to meet expectations.

The new camera attachment, called Komodo, will “vastly exceed the originally planned module” and will be supported by both the Hydrogen One and new Hydrogen Two. “While it does not replace its big Red brothers, it will certainly be a complimentary camera for cinema grade images at the highest level at lower pricing.”

By now, you’re probably wondering how anyone would be foolish enough to trust Red to deliver a phone that won’t be a train wreck. 

If anything, Jannard’s promise that “every Hydrogen One owner will get significant preferential treatment for the HYDROGEN Two and/or new Cinema Camera model, both in delivery allocations and pricing” shows he cares deeply about winning back burned fans.

Red customers are nothing if not loyalists and if the company does right by them, all will be forgiven.

First though, Red needs to come clean and accept the blame for the Hydrogen One screwup instead of pointing fingers elsewhere. The Hydrogen One’s spectacular failure is nobody’s fault but Red’s.