The announcement comes about a month after Solana Mobile indicated it couldn’t fulfill all outstanding orders of its first crypto-integrated Android smartphone, named Saga, which sold out in the United States and European Union.
Customers can pre-order the new phone for $450.
(Screenshot of @SolanaMobile on X)
Posted January 16, 2024 at 2:52 pm EST.
Solana Mobile unveiled plans Tuesday afternoon to release a second crypto-focused phone.
The new hardware product is cheaper than the first Solana crypto phone and will be shipped in the first half of 2025, according to its website. The successor will be limited to one per person and five per household. CoinDesk first reported on the news of the new phone.
The announcement comes about a month after Solana Mobile indicated it couldn’t fulfill all outstanding orders of its first crypto-integrated Android smartphone, named Saga, which sold out in the United States and European Union.
As a result of a limited supply of Saga phones, secondary buyers have been bidding for new, factory-sealed Solana Saga phones between a range of roughly $2,350 and $3,250 on Ebay. Solana Mobile initially priced their Saga devices at $1,000, before cutting prices to $699 to help boost sales.
People can preorder the new devices now for $450.
“Solana Mobile’s focus is on capturing the overwhelming demand from both users looking for the next wave from Solana Mobile, as well as ecosystem developers looking to support the launch of our successor product,” wrote Solana Mobile spokesperson Megan Enright in an email to Unchained. “This product will further what we set out to do with the Solana Mobile Saga — which was to make crypto products and services more accessible to the public by putting Web3 securely in the palms of their hands.”
According to a Solana Mobile community manager on Discord, who goes by the screenname Jax, customers waiting for the first Solana hardware device will still receive it, while the new device is a different product than Saga.
The Saga’s Saga
The first Solana phone was not an immediate success as the hardware device struggled with sales. However, sentiment changed about the phone when crypto traders learned how each phone contained several million tokens of Solana memecoin BONK, worth more than the phone itself, contributing to its sellout.
OSOM, the smartphone company that built the hardware for the first device from Solana Mobile, said they had “nothing to share at this time,” when asked whether it will make the newly announced cryptophone.
“Almost overnight, Solana Mobile’s Saga became the most rewarding experience on a phone, ever, and sold out,” Solana Mobile said in its announcement for the new phone on X. “Having 20,000 Sagas in the community’s hands is a crucial milestone. We now have a community as sizable as some of the largest NFT projects, offering a fertile ground for developers to build and experiment with mobile. But it’s time to aim much higher.”
With regards to the Saga, Solana founder Anatoly Yakovenko told Unchained on Laura Shin’s podcast in December that, “We really needed to hit like, I think 25,000 to 50,000 units to feel like there is a core user base for developers to be compelled to ship applications.”
