demand for Chapter 2 is clearly going very well, with Solana Mobile hitting its seven-day sales goal within the first 24 hours, Raj Gokal, co-founder of Solana and president of Solana Labs, exclusively tells TechCrunch. told.
Gokal said Solana Mobile had more than 25,000 pre-orders in the first 24 hours after the phone was announced, and 30,000 in the first 30 hours. Looking at these numbers, this new device has already surpassed his 12-month sales of Solana's first phone, Saga.
The new mobile phone has similar features as its predecessor. It's Android-based and has a built-in cryptocurrency wallet. seed storage and a “dApp store” for decentralized crypto applications. The original price was $450, which is cheaper than Saga's retail price of $599. According to a Solana spokesperson, Chapter 2 is expected to ship in the first half of 2025.
“For developers, Solana Mobile creates a huge opportunity for crypto app teams that want to incentivize their users,” Gokal said. “This gives us a focused distribution channel to our most engaged and engaged users. This allows us to do this without exorbitant app store fees.”
Gokal added that the device represents what is possible with cryptocurrencies and provides value to encourage users to use the app.
Climbing Saga
Solana's first smartphone didn't see much demand when it first launched in mid-2023 for $1,000. However, the company quickly lowered the price to $599 in light of weak demand. YouTuber Marques Brownlee called the Saga “the worst new phone of 2023” and even called it a “failure.”
Initially, the lackluster sales appeared to be due to the phone not gaining traction in the crowded smartphone market. But the crypto-savvy crowd's ears perked up when the dog-focused meme coin BONK's decentralized application (dApp) announced it would give away 30 million BONK tokens to owners of Saga. . Saga then sold out almost overnight.
At the time, 30 million BONK tokens were worth more than the price of the phone, so users were essentially getting the device (or token, depending on how you look at it) for free. Until then, Saga owners had received other crypto rewards, such as a mint for the Cranosaurus NFT collection, but those promotions didn't garner as much attention. But with the hype around BONK, other dApps started offering similar perks, which made even more people want to buy a phone to get the value they had on offer.
“When the market recovered in the fourth quarter of last year, Saga sold out, with most of those sales occurring in just two days in December,” Gokal said. “Since then, we have been receiving thousands of additional requests every day.”
Now, Solana hopes to recreate the same magic in Chapter 2. The Saga Genesis Token, a non-transferable NFT that comes with every Saga and helps owners redeem rewards, is not available to owners of new devices, but the company said in an FAQ that it He plans to build on this experience in Chapter 2.
“Giving back to the community has a snowball effect. As more developers start releasing crypto-incentivized apps to Solana Mobile users, we will see even more adoption,” said Gokal. I am. He added that Chapter 2 will be launched with sponsors such as Backpack, Tensor, Phantom, Solflare, Magic Eden and Drip to reward owners.
“Chapter 2 focuses on broader distribution and accessibility improvements, leveraging the learnings of the past two years to increase flexibility for developers and users,” Gokal said.
Gokal said the company wants to give “complete freedom to cryptocurrency developers and users” by placing no limits on tokens or NFTs and not charging exorbitant fees, and the new device will last for one year. As stated above, it is “under development.”