This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of apply.

Last month, we covered Cherry-red's proclamation of its upcoming phone. Non only did the announcement drop out of the blueish from a company known for making high-finish cameras and projectors, it was staggeringly priced, at $1,195 for the aluminum version and $i,595 if you wanted information technology in titanium. That'due south before we got to all the PR and marketingspeak about killer capabilities, a holographic display enabled by nanotechnology (seriously), and the promise this camera would be capable of seamlessly interacting with Red cameras as an interface and monitor.

This last point, at least, seems fully within the capabilities of modern software and hardware, though information technology'south incommunicable to know how adept the implementation will be earlier we accept hardware in-paw. Now, though, CNET has done some digging on the Android-powered Scarlet Hydrogen and come up with some interesting details.

Start, the Hydrogen's design has scalloped edges to help you hold information technology — something nosotros'd love to see Apple tree or Google endeavour out, given how large modern phones have gotten. Other patent filings indicate the ridges are in that location to help users who are mounting additional lenses to the camera and conveying the extra bulk…which leads directly to the adjacent point. Red wants to experiment with creating an ecosystem for interchangeable lenses, peradventure even allowing for interchangeable camera sensors. This would be a significant feat, though there are risks equally well (we'll talk over those in a moment).

Lens-Swap-System

Scarlet too has dreams of creating an ecosystem for add together-ons like batteries, though we're a fleck more dubious on this front. To appointment, the prospects for modular phones have been dim, from Motorola'due south experiments to Google's ill-fated Project Ara. Even the 5.vii-inch "4-View" holographic display has gotten some additional description, courtesy of Red founder Jim Jannard, who wrote in a forum post:

Information technology [the holographic display] is incredible. It is multi-view (4-view) as compared to stereo 3D (2-view)… Our display is technology yous haven't seen before. It is not lenticular, which is junior tech in every way, has been tried many times earlier and failed for skilful reason…

That's yet non exactly what we'd call a detailed analysis, but Red is clearly putting some weight backside this idea. Nonetheless, it faces a tough boxing to bring the product to market.

When 'Best-in-class' Isn't Good Plenty

Let's get one matter out of the style: Red is a well-known, well-respected photographic camera manufacturer. If this was a mail service well-nigh how Reddish wanted to motion into cell phone cameras, or accept its idea for interchangeable lenses out and shop it effectually to a company like Samsung or Apple, I'd be 100% behind it. Great idea. Simply I'm uncertain Red tin can build a sustainable market place around moves like this for two reasons.

First, phone cameras have been closing the gap betwixt themselves and digital single-lens reflex cameras (DSLRs) for years now. While a good DSLR will nonetheless beat even the very best telephone camera, phones take been nailing "skilful enough" for millions of people for years now, leading the point-and-shoot camera market to shrink to simply 12 one thousand thousand units shipped for all of 2022, down from 120 million in 2008.

Elsewhere in his forum mail service, Jannard writes: "Information technology also comes with… A selfie camera and a back camera. These cameras will not produce movie theater quality images. No jail cell phone does. What we will have is a modular system that adds image quality well beyond any other photographic camera brusk of our professional cameras."

At first glance, that sounds great, until you consider that later ponying upwards $one,200 to $1,600 for the telephone, you're at present going to have to pay for the lenses. I have no thought what Reddish will charge for these, only given its history of manufacturing premium hardware, it's hard to imagine they'll exist cheap. If they aren't, the overall buy-in cost will quickly achieve a signal where it would've been cheaper to buy a phone and a good DSLR for less than you'd pay for the Red Hydrogen + lenses. Red's premium business organisation model may do it few favors here, when you tin can purchase a phone from Apple tree or Samsung that'southward nearly equally good by most people's standards (I'yard non claiming the average person has great standards, just observing a fact) or purchase a loftier-end telephone and a nice camera for the same amount of money.

2d, Crimson has no experience in offer phone Bone and security updates and the sheer expense of the device means users will have different expectations from it than they might otherwise. Someone who is willing to pay $600 to $800 for a telephone they trade in every 2-3 years may still balk if told they need to pay $1,500 or $two,000 for a device with the same expected lifetime.

Most Android OEMs aren't very expert at updates and tend to leave devices unsupported subsequently one OS update, if they even get that. Google-branded products fare better in this regard, but it'southward one area where Apple admittedly excels compared with what Android users are expected to put up with. As a ways of illustration, my iPhone 5c is a 2022 telephone built on 2022 hardware running iOS x, which shipped three years later on my phone was built and four years afterward its SoC was cutting-edge. iOS eleven is the first OS I tin't upgrade to, but if I'd opted for an iPhone 5s in 2022 instead of the cheaper 5c, I'd be on supported hardware at the same time my phone was turning 4. By the time Apple presumably phased out 5s back up with iOS 12, I'd have a five-year-old phone.

If Cerise wants to win customers for its enterprise, it needs to kickoff releasing more info on how it intends to appeal to customers and how it will handle issues like device longevity and capability. Carmine has a long way to become to demonstrate information technology's ready to be a actor in this space. In my first post, I claimed this hardware flatly wasn't happening. I'thousand still inclined to believe that, given the spectacular difficulty of creating what Scarlet proposes, much less building the ecosystem around a modular phone with lens and camera sensor swaps.