RED Digital Cinema CEO Jim Jannard has admitted that the first production run of the Titanium version of the Hydrogen One smartphone will not ship to pre-order customers in the timeframe he had hoped for.

Jannard has been giving updates on his company’s forum and has said that manufacturing, controlled by a contractor, would be difficult. He didn’t expect that it would be so difficult.

“The 1st run of Ti is a disaster,” he wrote in a post titled “The post I don’t want to make.” “All fail.”

He acknowledges those who have paid more than $1,600 to reserve a phone for a top-quality version might be “pretty pissed off” that they’re going to be waiting much longer than the 14 months they’ve already had to wait.

To make good on the failure, Jannard has decided to send all Titanium pre-orders an Aluminum version, retail value of $1,295, of the Hydrogen when it begins shipping — previously announced as from October 9. Those customers will also get to keep their Aluminum units once they are sent the Titanium version.

It’s a difficult proposition to make a smartphone, so it’s nice to see accountability in the independent field.