Hop-on Announces Six Handsets

Renegade handset maker Hop-on isn't happy with its $10 "anti-iPhone" - now it's introducing six new handsets, including a $125 PDA smartphone.

Renegade handset maker Hop-on isn’t content to rest on the buzz surrounding its disposable $10 “anti-iPhone,” the HOP1800, which it bills as the lowest-cost mobile phone in the world. Now the company says it has six more GMS and 3G phones up it sleeve, ready to go on sale worldwide, including the HOP1801 Smart Phone, which it claims will be the lowest cost smart phone on the market. But that’s literally all Hop-on has revealed about the HOP1801: no mention of operating system, software, memory, hardware specs, screen size, or anything else.

“We will have market presence throughout the globe with our high-end technology PDA phone to our low end phone that is, well, that is really just a phone. Since the announcement of our $10USD ‘Anti iPhone’, we have had inquiries from distributors and carriers from over 30 countries,” said Hop-on CEO and president Peter Michaels.

In addition to the HOP1801, the company is also promising the HOP1803 as an ultra low-price triband GSM phone, the HOP1805 as an ultra low-cost cell phone for emerging markets, and the Hop1810 will be a dual-band GMS camera phone. All three—along with the HOP1801 smart phone—will be available in North and South America, Asia, the Middle East, and Africa in at least English, Arabic, Spanish, and Portuguese.

For North and South America, Hop-on is promising the HOP1808 “dual sim” phone, which will offer a camera, optional Bluetooth, an integrated FM tuner, GPRS, and video playback capability, and the HOP1809 will be a Java/Brew handset with Bluetooth and an integrated camera.

Aside from saying the HOP1801 PDA phone will be priced at $125, no pricing or availability information was offered. But it wouldn’t be a Hop-on announcement without some color commentary from CEO Michaels, who promoted Hop-on’s $10 anti-iPhone by suggesting Apple should bundle it as a freebie with iPhones. “This way, if you drop your 3G iPhone in the water, you can use the backup to call Apple for anther $500 phone. They can call it the Back-up iPhone!”

Remember, Hop-on is the company that claims a patent on MP3-capable phones and flip-phone designs.