Demand for The second quarter appears to be very high, with Solana Mobile hitting its 7-day sales target within the first 24 hours, Raj Gokal, Solana co-founder and president of Solana Labs, exclusively told TechCrunch.
In the first 24 hours after the phone was announced, Solana Mobile saw more than 25,000 pre-orders, and by 30 hours, it had 30,000 pre-orders, Gokal said. With these numbers, this new device has already exceeded the sales value of the first Solana phone, the Saga, over a 12-month period.
The new phone will have similar features to its predecessor: it is based on Android, has a built-in cryptocurrency wallet, Seed vault and a “dApp store” for decentralized crypto applications. It’s initially being offered at $450, down from the $599 the Saga retails for. The second trimester will ship in the first half of 2025, a Solana spokesman said.
“For developers, Solana Mobile provides a tremendous opportunity for cryptocurrency app teams looking to incentivize their users,” Gokal said. “It gives them a focused distribution channel for dedicated, loyal users. It allows them to do this without any hefty App Store fees.
Gokal added that the device represents what is possible with cryptocurrencies, providing value in stimulating applications for users.
Climbing Saga
Solana’s first smartphone didn’t see much demand when it debuted in mid-2023 for $1,000. But the company quickly reduced the price to $599 in light of weak demand. Even YouTuber Marquis Brownlee The Saga was called the “worst new phone of 2023”.“He said it was a ‘bust.’
Initially, it seemed that the lackluster sales were due to the phone not being noticed in the crowded smartphone market. But the ears of the crypto-loving public perked up when dog-focused memecoin BONK decentralized app (dApp) announced that it would be offering 30 million BONK tokens to Saga holders for free. The saga then sold out almost overnight.
At the time, 30 million BONK tokens were worth more than the cost of the phone, so users essentially got the device (or tokens, depending on how you look at it) for free. Before that, Saga holders received other cryptocurrency rewards, such as mints for the Claynosaurz NFT set, but those promotions didn’t receive the same amount of attention. Following the BONK hype, other dApps started offering similar rewards, resulting in more people wanting to buy the phone for its value on offer.
“As the market rebounded in the fourth quarter of last year, Saga sold out, with the vast majority of those sales occurring over just two days in December,” Gokal said. “Since then, we have been flooded with thousands of requests for more every day.”
Now, Solana is hoping to recreate the same magic with Chapter 2. The Saga genesis token, the non-transferable NFT that came with every Saga and helped owners redeem rewards, will no longer be available to new console owners, but the company plans to “build on that experience in Chapter Two,” according to what was stated therein Instructions.
“Giving back to the community has a snowball effect: as more developers start releasing crypto-inducing apps for Solana Mobile users, we will see greater adoption,” Gokal said. He added that Chapter Two has been launched with sponsors including Backpack, Tensor, Phantom, Solflare, Magic Eden and Drip, who plan to reward owners.
“Chapter 2 focuses on broader distribution, increased accessibility, and uses lessons learned from the past two years to enable more flexibility for developers and users,” Gokal said.
Gokal said the new device had been “in the works” for more than a year, as the company wanted to give “complete freedom to cryptocurrency developers and users,” with no restrictions on tokens or NFTs, and without exorbitant fees.