> Phones
HULGER
The idea for HULGER arrived in 2000. The mobile phone as 'cultural artifact'. As 'timeless classic'. As 'thing of beauty'. A great idea, we thought. Surely somebody's doing it, we thought. So we sat and did nothing and forgot about it. But No, nobody was doing it. So in 2002 we created a prototype. DESIGN WEEK featured it. This was the beginning.There was a long way to go. In 2003 a student at MIT put up a 'web-page' claiming to have had the idea first. Ker-Pow. An hour later our counter-claim was up with the DESIGN WEEK article as proof. Bam. The fight which followed made people sit up and listen. There was coverage in the media. We were up and running. Next came Ebay, where we sold prototypes to generate cash so that we could make more. They sold like 'hot cakes'. The original HULGER phones were made by buying old phones and soldering in hands-free kits. They were not elegant but they were effective. Now, what should we call them? The first phones were sold with the name 'Pokia'. The name caught on. Soon 'Pokia-a-likes' were springing up all over the world. 'Blogs' had picked up on the phenomenon. From 'Blogs' to the New York Times and Reuters, soon everyone was hearing about Pokia. We were 'in business'. There are many twists and turns in any journey. Next, Nokia challenged our trademark application. The name 'Pokia' was not allowed. Disaster? Not at all. We changed the name to HULGER after 'grandfather Hulger', a stern Danish man who understood the value of things; his leather armchair; his grandfather clock; his nineteen fifties Opel he drove until he died. Mr Hulger would have liked our phone. 'HULGER' had arrived. We believe that Hulger has a chance to occupy a new space in consumer electronics, where usefullness, cultural significance and style come together. We think there are many technologies that could be improved by the Hulger approach. 'Bluetooth' will be coming soon as is VOIP. We hope much more will follow.