Solana Labs co-founder hints at possibility of third mobile device
Last month, Solana Mobile's flagship Web3 smartphone “Saga'' is sold out. Last week, the Solana Labs subsidiary launched his second phone, and in less than a week he had more than 40,000 pre-orders. However, the company's momentum is not slowing down anytime soon.
“After Saga sold out, we felt there was an opportunity and we felt the market timing was right,” Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs, said on TechCrunch's “Chain Reaction” podcast. “timing [for the new phone] It worked in that moment. ”
And if the second device is successful, Yakovenko hinted that a third phone will be released later. In other words, Web3 mobile phones are not a punch line, but a potential growth category.
But Solana Mobile's path to growth hasn't been easy. The first Saga devices didn't see much demand when they launched in mid-2023 for $1,000. In light of low demand, the company quickly lowered the price to $599.
Saga's fortunes took a turn for the better after crypto users noticed that dog-centric meme coin BONK's decentralized app (dApp) had given Saga's owners 30 million free tokens. It was worth about the same price as a cell phone at the time. After that, Saga sold out quickly.
“Cryptocurrencies have been through a tough bear market, and I think the Solana ecosystem has been at its worst,” Yakovenko said. “We were looking for more developers for our launch and I would say this. [we were] It's a kind of survival mode. Because during that valley of despair, you have to survive until something like macro happens. [turns the market] around it. “