The Turing phone, advertised as "unhackable," looks and sounds like a handset that would never see the light of day. Call it a work of science fiction, a fanboy's wet dream of a device materialized out of Robotech. But prototypes exist and pre-orders have gone live. Thing is, that promised shipment date of December 18th has been delayed.

Turing Robotic Industries has sent out an email saying it will need more time. To compensate, it's giving customers who placed a pre-order two options. One, they can cancel and receive an immediate refund. Folks who go with option two, sitting tight, will receive a free upgrade. 16GB of internal memory will turn into 64GB. 64GB will become 128GB. Folks who ordered 128GB will get the limited edition model.

The company hasn't announced a new shipping date, but it promises that the devices will go out by the end of Q1 2016.

Here is the full email.

Dear TRI Fans,

The year 2015 is drawing to a close, and the Turing Phone continues to earn worldwide recognition through featured media headlines. We truly appreciate the continued faith you have in TRI and want you to know how important it is for us to put a Turing Phone into your hands. In the last 12 months, we've made it from a laboratory experiment to a fully production-ready product that is nothing less than extraordinary and through your support, we did it together.

The Turing Phone isn’t just a hardware device, it's the perfect blend of both hardware and software. While we have achieved the claims we’ve made earlier this year - from our signature Liquidmorphium frame to the waterproof feature, the last remaining developmental step is our OS and the security platform. Many of you have asked us to support Google Play Store and we listened. We are inching closer to fulfill our promise of delivering a truly secure OS while allowing you the ability to download apps that you're familiar with and use regularly.

TRI needs more time to make sure when the Turing Phone is delivered it’ll be one of the best mobile devices ever conceived. To accomplish this, we ask for your patience and continuous support. Because we'll miss the December 18th shipping deadline, we are offering the following options for you to consider:

1.  If you pre-ordered the phone(s), we will upgrade your current order, eg., 16GB phone upgraded to a 64GB, 64GB upgraded to 128GB, 128GB upgraded to the limited edition model.

2.  If you can’t wait a few short weeks longer, you may cancel your pre-ordered Turing Phone (s), and receive an immediate full refund.

Choosing to stay with TRI, we can ensure that it will be worth the wait. You are our most valuable asset and we are committed to bringing you the very best products and services we possibly can. This is our promise to you!

The exact shipping date will be announced later this month. It will be no later than the end of Q1 2016.

Thank you for staying with us all this time and for your understanding.

Sincerely,

SYL Chao

CEO | TRI