Hop-On Mobile releases $10 HOP1800, the "anti-iPhone"
By Ryan Block 
posted May 25th 2008 1:58PM
posted May 25th 2008 1:58PM
[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Please note: If you're a current Engadget commenter, you do not need to re-register. Simply login and you will be prompted to select a username.
This is better than the iPhone. I'm getting one.
[/sarcasm]
The name is so stupid. It's nowhere near an anti-iPhone.
Oh relax, it's just a marketing gimmick.
Thats some greaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat marketing team.
The marketing team should be fired.
Yeah, I think that's the point. The iPhone is obsessed over for it's massive usefulness as "more than a phone" and this is just some phone that no one should ever care about, therefore it IS an anti-iPhone.
Well no, if you're somebody who actually wants a phone to phone people and actually have decent reception, for the equivalent of £5 this is to today's mass of overblown "phones" as the EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE is to every modern notebook--does what you want well, and you're not paying for everything else under the sun.
You put an iPhone and this, the anti-iPhone, together and we have annihilation.
Out of curiosity, what is a disposable cell phone? like you can only call 36 times and then you get it developed?? 0.o
I think the Marketing Team did a great job here. Otherwise, do you think engadget would have even bothered to publish an article about a $10 cheep disposable phone....
Oh wait, on the second thought, engadget DOES cover each and everything that has even a remote relation to the word iPhone...
Actually, I think Ryan would post a story about a $10 dollar cell phone. Whether or not the marketing team decided to slip iPhone into the story.
Please.
This 'hop-on' what, Twaddle? Please tell me that your inner three year old decided that 'homo' was to be used as an insult. You just rendered a perfectly good post childish and insulting.
lol - for those who are voting me down - you do realise that the insulting post I was replying to has been removed, don't you?
No, i'm waiting for the 3G HOP1800 ..
HOPing for it...
awesome.
Am I the only one who actually really likes the design of the phone?...lol
It appears to have no screen at all.
In other words, yes.
Well I mean if it HAD a screen
Still yes.
iPhone haters rejoice, now you have a phone that is exactly the opposite to the iPhone :-D
eeePhone that was discussed earlier?
Yes, exactly.
Wow! I want one just to say I have one!
Drug Dealers & Kidnappers Rejoice! No more measly 200 SMSes a month or crime whichever comes first.
That's not the anti-iPhone, that's the pro-miser phone. Built for cheapsters, fixed income or poverty-level users. It's a useful concept. I know someone elderly that pays $25 a month for a T-Mobile contract on a cellphone she never uses. She keeps it as a backup in case her landline goes dead. It would be perfect for her.
pay as you go? handy sometimes..
Why the fsck is he low ranked?
Low-rank me all you want, but he's right, you rich a$$es
I also know people like that.... In other countries cell phones *are more expensive* than in the US, and people is less rich than in the US... Stop taking it everyone can pay for, or even wants expensive phones with forced X years contracts....
Heck, I think even I would find it useful, for travels... I don't have a cell phone. I just don't have any use for them when I am on the city, a non-phone PDA performs better for all the other things phones do.. (I know saying this on an almost mobile site is pure suicide)
I could've agreed with you except...the article never mentioned about the company offering service, just the phone. So even if poor people did get the phone they still need to find a way to pay for service.
I'm all for cheap solutions. The first comment for this article and its follow-up comments make ppl so ignorant about others without money. This phone would be good for those who only needs to make calls outside the house and nothing else. You ppl might as make fun of the jitterbug while you're at it.
P.S. Don't point out my usage of using "ppl" because expecting people to be perfect in online communication is just stupid. It's an informal setting, so being perfect is useless.
This isn't an anti-iPhone.
This is like an iPhone Shuffle.
Nah, the iPhone Shuffle would have one button, no screen, and will only call random people in your contacts.
drunk dial isn't just for when you're drunk any more!
lol :)
Engadget must be sad someone finally made a phone they can't stretch to accuse of being an iPhone ripoff. :)
Or for $5 more you can get a Motorola phone with a color screen, SMS, phonebook and WAP.
Who is buying these?
I think you forgot to mention 2 year contract.
No two year contract, go down to Target or Walmart or the like and you can buy one for that without a contract. It's locked to TracPhone or AT&T but its a full featured and dirt cheap phone none the less.
Actually, didn't AT&T announce that you can bring your own phone and sign up for a plan with no contract? Just buy the $15 go phone and pop a regular service AT&T Sim in it.
How does its lock to blah blah but not on a contract = to this NOT LOCKED into a carrier phone???
you mean this motorola f3? $30 http://www.amazon.com/Motorola-Motofone-F3-Unlocked-Phone-International/dp/B0013A7KMW
I think this mobile will be ideal for tourists, just pick one up for 10€ (7€ + 3€ credit) in a vending machine at the airport or train station. Then, voila, you have instant communication.
No need to fuddle with coins with a payphone, or worry about using your own phone to call a taxi will cost more then the taxi journey itself.
I think that this mobile would be great for Jason Bourne.
Who needs a disposable phone? Anyone? The only people who need this are people who buy SIM cards and throw them away: drug dealers and criminals.
I love how you separated drug dealers from criminals as if there are non-criminal drug dealers. LOL
there are.. those selling medicine..
Pharmacists lol.
"The only people who need this are people who buy SIM cards and throw them away: drug dealers and criminals. "
Oh, it all makes sense, because legal pharmacists buy SIM cards and throw them away.
In the future, phamacists, aren't called drug dealers, they're called pharmacists.
Just Epic Fail Sukhminder, Epic
hahaha... touche
How about people in development or public health (I work in Haiti) who would like a cheap way to stay in contact with people? I could give a phone and phone card to a community health worker. Some people in developing countries "sell" their minutes, allowing villagers some level of contact with people outside of their regions--and it allows someone to create a microenterprise. Healthworkers in Kenya use cell phones to set up rendevous to exchange vital nutritional supplements for undernourished children. Any positive thing someone can do with a cell phone (limited of course to the call feature) can be done with this cell phone--but for much cheaper. I am very excited about the possibilities. Drug dealers, indeed...
just call, do nothing, $10
while iPhone do every thing and expensive. this anti-iPhone is do nothing and low-cost
it's like 1 and -1 so they call it anti-iPhone
i'm glad these will be available. Now those wankers who think that adding more features to a phone somehow make it less of a phone can have something to buy instead of bitching and moaning.
The problem w/ Hop On is that they "release" lots of phones. Someone tell me, however, if they've actually seen one of their phones. I know I haven't (& I actually looked for one a while back).
HOP-On? More like Jog On!
Is it 100% bbiodégradable?
I think this great. My current phone has gotten bent and become unreliable. I want to wait a couple of months and see my new 3G options that are about to come out. Something like this seems like a good thing to have for a couple of months while I wait to figure out what I want longterm.
Umm... You can buy a used, old handy for 10-12 dollar, that has a screen, maybe even a colored one... this is only worth for special cases (you're a tourist, want instant communication)
yeah, and possibly there's free ones too.
Careful driving the stair-car...you will get hop-on's.
This is good for some occasions/places when you're in the dodgy corners of South Africa. I'm so paranoid of carrying my iPhone around shopping centres. I usually pop the SIM out and put it in an older phone.
Anyway, the phone looks interesting. I hope it can send SMS - do it like any other phone without the screen. Damn, I just want a couple of these phones just to try them out.
Spammers love delicious, nutritious spam: slurpeesand4x4s@aol.com
Dear Chad,
When you join a week ago and all your posts mentions a specific website, we know you're a spammer. Spammers aren't welcome here. Please leave.
*Kindly,
derX
*I'm lying, I'm not that kind.
PS- Like an ass, I actually went to the site and I'm pretty sure Engadget wouldn't enjoy your copying and pasting of this post. That's not nice, now is it?
It's not his fault. He's been brainwashed by Skynet.
A phone that ONLY makes calls for $10. I'd probably want one, but other people are going to say "oooh, he doesn't have a camera." Like I want a shoddy camera, ripoff text messaging, and a bread maker maker.
lol a bread maker maker hahahahaha.
Now we just need to invent a car engine that runs on expired HopPhones.
Not a bad idea... How about tourists visiting the US that just want to be able to contact each other without the extortionate rates of their home carrier networks? I know I'd get one when I'm next there and gladly trade that $10 for the *huge* bill I came back to in the UK.
The owner of Hop-on still owes me a remaining $500 for their web design.
http://BlakliteGraphics.deviantart.com/art/Hop-on-Design-59653998
Still ignores me to this day after a year of countless ways of contact.
Don't support this guy. I should have known when I researched him before I accepted the job. Once a crook, always a crook.
P.S. Get it on paper kids. He paid the first $500 so I thought I could trust him... nope.
it has more buttons than the iphone
KICK ASS! FINALLY I HAVE A PHONE I CAN TAKE HIKING WITH! =D
I hope they understand that every cell phone is an anti-iPhone. And the iPhone is an anti-every other cell phone. Just like a Chevy is anti-Ford and Ford is anti-Chevy.
Great, more disposable techno-junk going into landfills the day after it's purchased, just what the planet needs. I guess the Chinese have figured out how to get rid of their toxic waste - make it into disposable gadgets and sell it to the Americans :-)
Gee, if I really wanted to go 'anti' iPhone, I may as well get a used monochrome phone from nokia..... with screen, and i can even play Snake.
Why buy $10 phone that does pretty much nothing? I bought a second hand Sony Ericson for $15 for backup. It has bluetooth, camera, mms, wap ... and all other stuffs that normal mobile phones do ...
oh and my cheap sony ericson supports Java, even iPhone doesn't support Java yet :-P
You are all stupid - shut up.
No you.
I understand the marketing. It's the anti-iphone because it's only 10 bucks versus a whopping 400 bucks.
A lot of you guys are missing the point... it is an "anti" iPhone because it does the opposite thing the iPhone tries to do. iPhone is the high-priced luxury gimmick phone, where this is a dirt-cheap phone that only makes calls. They cashing in on the media buzz of the iPhone to get to the people on the outside who don't own them, and especially those who are sick of all of the gimmicky crap it represents. It would be a clever marketing ploy if more people got it.