Hop-On to introduce GSM MP3 phone with touch screen menu

Hop-On, Inc. has announced its latest GSM tri-band handset targeted for the United States and Latina atin America, to be available in October 2005. Hop-On's Model 1886 is a tri-band (850/1800/1900 MHz) handset with a touch screen menu, MP3 player, 2.0M CMOS camera and Mpeg 4 video recorder.

In addition, this handset includes such features as WAP/GPRS, 64 polyphonic ring tones, a 262K TFT main screen, predictive text input, SMS/MMS messaging, E-mail (WAP Push) and a 500 name address book.

The phone shows a strong similarity with other music players, including the Apple iPod.

Dan Gannon, Chief Executive Officer of Hop-On commented, "This latest phone is packed with features and will be a very compelling priced product. Our core business was on emerging markets and low-end handsets. This is our first handset targeted for the high-end and will retail for approximately US$300. Phones featuring similar features currently retail for approximately US$600 to US$700. Our market research studies showed that this design will be extremely successful."