The demand for it Chapter 2 is apparently so high, Solana Mobile hit its seven-day sales goal within the first 24 hours, Raj Gokal, co-founder of Solana and president of Solana Labs, told TechCrunch exclusively.
In the first 24 hours after the phone was announced, Solana Mobile saw over 25,000 pre-orders and within 30 hours, it had 30,000 pre-orders, Gokal said. In these numbers, this new device has already eclipsed the 12-month sales of Solana’s first handset, the Saga.
The new phone will have similar features to its predecessor: It’s based on Android, has a built-in crypto wallet, Seed vault and a “dApp store” for decentralized crypto applications. It’s initially priced at $450, less than the $599 the Saga retails for. Chapter 2 will ship in the first half of 2025, a Solana spokesperson said.
“For developers, Solana Mobile creates a huge opportunity for crypto app teams looking to incentivize their users,” said Gokal. “It gives them a concentrated distribution channel to die-hard, dedicated users. It allows them to do this without prohibitive app store fees.”
Gokal added that the device represents what’s possible with crypto, providing value in incentivizing apps for users.
The Ascent of Saga
Solana’s first smartphone wasn’t in high demand when it first launched in mid-2023 for $1,000. But the company soon dropped the price to $599 in light of weak demand. Even YouTuber Marques Brownlee called the Saga the “worst new phone of 2023” and said it was a “bust”.
Initially, it appeared that the unusual sales were because the phone went unnoticed in the crowded smartphone market. But the ears of the crypto-savvy crowd perked up when the dog-centric decentralized memecoin application (dApp) BONK announced that it was giving away 30 million BONK tokens for free to Saga owners. Then Saga sold out almost overnight.
At the time, 30 million BONK tokens were worth more than the cost of the phone, so users basically got the device (or tokens, depending on how you look at it) for free. Before then, Saga owners received other crypto rewards, such as the mint for the Claynosaurz NFT collection, but these offers did not attract as much attention. After the BONK hype, however, other dApps started offering similar rewards, which resulted in even more people wanting to buy the phone to get their hands on the value it offered.
“As the market recovered in the fourth quarter of last year, the Saga sold out, with the vast majority of these sales taking place in just two days in December,” Gokal said. “Since then, we’ve been inundated daily with thousands of requests for more.”
Now Solana is hoping to recreate that same magic with Chapter 2. The Saga genesis token, the non-transferable NFT that came with every Saga and helped owners redeem rewards, won’t be available to owners of the new devices, but the company plans to “build on that experience in Chapter 2,” according to the FAQ.
“Giving back to the community has an avalanche effect: As more developers start releasing crypto-motivated apps to Solana Mobile users, we’ll see even greater adoption,” Gokal said. Chapter 2 has launched with sponsors including Backpack, Tensor, Phantom, Solflare, Magic Eden and Drip planning to reward owners, he added.
“Chapter 2 is focused on wider distribution, greater accessibility, and uses lessons learned from the past two years to enable more flexibility for developers and users,” Gokal said.
The new device has been “in the works” for over a year, Gokal said, as the company wanted to give “complete freedom to cryptocurrency developers and users,” with no restrictions on tokens or NFTs and no prohibitive fees.
