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RED cancels Hydrogen phone project as founder Jim Jannard retires
RED's ambitious Hydrogen phone project is ending after the release of just a single device, the Hydrogen One, according to an announcement from Jim Jannard. The company's founder says that he is "shutting down the HYDROGEN project" as he retires due to "a few health issues."
The $1,295 RED Hydrogen One was the first smartphone from the high-end camera company; first announced in 2017, it promised bold new technologies like a "holographic display," a top-notch camera system, and modular attachments to expand the phone over time. After a series of delays, the phone was eventually released to a lackluster reception in October 2018.
[...] Jannard has been the face of RED and its high-end cameras since he founded the company back in 1999. According to Jannard, RED Digital Cinema will live on under the leadership of Jarred Land (RED's current president), Tommy Rios (RED's executive vice president) and Jamin Jannard (RED's president of marketing and creative).
That's enough of that.
Also at Wccftech.
Previously: RED Pitches a $1,200 Holographic Android Smartphone
$1,300 RED Hydrogen One Smartphone Fails to Impress Reviewers
RED Blames Chinese Manufacturer for "Hydrogen One" Issues, Confirms Second Smartphone
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Bot on Saturday October 26 2019, @05:36AM
- why are there startups?
- because it is R&D done at zero cost. Basically you do R&D forfeiting your time and investment, then you look for a big buyer. The lottery model, same as app writers in app store and musicians in music store and the small dealer in network marketing and immigrant in supposedly richer nations. Big prizes for those who make it get the mass to follow, the mass cannot all make it but it doesn't matter for who gets the cut if it is 1 musician selling 1000 songs or 1000 musician selling 1.
- why hasn't been always this way? why there were R&D labs?
- because it was more difficult to acquire specialized knowledge before the internet, AND because it was EASIER to compete on the market on par with incumbents if you had a good idea, before the globalization reduced suppliers to a handful of big factories in china.
- why are we discussing OT stuff?
- It is not OT, outsiders with a good idea like FOSS phones, or phones with mighty display and camera tech like this one, are and have been and will be routinely fucked by hardware suppliers, because they 1. have to fulfill the orders and the wishes of the incumbents 2. they prefer the slow steady 'progress' of established companies 3. they are under direct or indirect pressure from the deep state not to return to the day where electronic components were rewirable by just about anyone. It is of course possible that all these genial idea guys populating crowdsourcing sites and not delivering are inexperienced crooks selling vaporware. But it's becoming an awful lot of the same old story, which is suspect. Those that succeed usually do it with 2nd rate hardware and or high prices.
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