Hop-on just released a $10 pre-paid cell phone. I was pretty interested when I heard about it because that is dirt cheap, imagine paying only $10 for a cell phone and having talk time of up to 4 hours and a standby time of 150 hours - that's decent if I do say so myself. It's dual band as well. Plus although the phone is considered disposable, the company Hop-on is offering a $5 rebate for returning the phone to encourage recycling the phone to “Keep it Green”.
It actually looks like a pretty good product until I started to do some research. And I found this on Techdirt
Hop-On's "disposable phones" were really Nokia phones with their own plastic casing put around them. At first Hop-On tried to get around this, but finally admitted that they were repackaging the Nokias - but just for the prototypes. Their "real" phones would show up soon enough. Hop-On also has some legal problems. A few years ago they were associated with a venture that was charged with "fleecing investors out of as much as $20 million". The company also recently lost their corporate status for not filing a tax return for the past two years.
That's quite scary. Their phones still look good, but now I doubt the credibility. But I do still think it may be worth a shot if you've got an extra $10 to burn. The phone is available now “to retailers such as drug and convenience stores, big box retailers and to businesses looking for a unique branding opportunity,” so you may see this around town if you haven’t already.
No comments:
Post a Comment