They say that if you go to prison, the best thing you can do is to act crazy your first day and punch the biggest, baddest looking dude you can find. Seems Hop-on (you remember Hop-on, right?) is trying the same technique by pitting its $125 HOP1809 3g handset against the new iPhone. Good for you, Hop-on. Good for you.
Hop-on comes out swinging, ridiculing the iPhone’s immense size and lack of a front-facing camera. Things start to get a little wobbly after that, though, with the Hop-on’s 1.8-inch CSTN display, MIDI ringtones, and REX operating system standing behind the handset cautiously throwing half-hearted gang signs at Apple’s contender.
But company president Peter Michaels says…
"Unlike the iPhone(TM), the camera view finder at the front of the HOP1809 has the capability of facilitating true video conference calls. I’m really excited with this new series."
Perhaps more exciting than news of this new iPhone killer is that these phones might actually be available in real life, as the above-referenced press release states that…
The 1800 Series of Hop-on phones are in production and will be available everywhere by 3Q 2008. Hop-on will be making its US debut at the MLB All-star game at Yankee stadium in New York City July 14th weekend.
So that’s where we’ll see these phones for the first time – at the All-Star game.