Following several years of setbacks and controversies, disposable phone company Hop-on said it is on track, scoring sales and proclaiming optimism for the rest of the year.
“2004 is off to a great start for Hop-on,” said Dan Gannon, the company’s chief executive officer. “The purchase orders we disclosed last month remain on track for shipment. Production has already commenced, and given that the phones have already been approved on these networks, we now expect initial shipments to begin by the end of April.”
Such enthusiasm caps several years of turmoil for the company. Hop-on was one of several companies that beginning in 2000 promised to revolutionize the mobile-phone industry with cheap, disposable mobile phones. Other vendors such as New Horizons Technologies International Inc., Diceland Technologies Corp. and Telespree Communications have since faded from view or moved on to other businesses, but Hop-on has doggedly maintained its plans to sell disposable mobile phones. Over the years, however, Hop-on has faced challenges including the arrest for fraud of its former CEO in connection with a now-defunct online gambling company, as well as questions over the validity of Hop-on’s sales and product claims.
However, Hop-on recently acquired phone accessories company WirelessCompany.com, and its products were featured in a sizeable booth at the recent CTIA Wireless show in Atlanta.
“Given all of the progress we have made thus far in 2004, we also expanded our office in Dallas to support both our development activities and the coordination of the handset approval process with carriers,” said Hop-on’s Gannon. “Since opening our Dallas office last year, we have nearly tripled the size of our research and development team, giving us the necessary resources to support the major carriers we are in discussions with. Overall, we remain optimistic about our business and the company’s growth prospects.”
