Solana Mobile is just getting started | Chain Reaction Podcast

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Saga Phone

The Saga phone, a web3-focused smartphone by Solana Labs, initially faced low demand at its launch in mid-2023 due to its $1,000 price tag.
The phone gained popularity after dog-focused meme coin Bonk provided 30 million Bonk tokens to Saga owners, covering the phone's cost, leading to a sell-out in mid-December 2023.
Solana Labs aimed to challenge the dominance of Apple and Google in the mobile app market and provide a platform for developers without the 20-30% revenue cut taken by app stores.
The initial traction came from developers, with approximately 10,000 sales on day one, primarily driven by developers testing their applications.
The growth of the Saga phone was driven by factors such as the Bonk token's price increase and the rewards offered by the phone.

The Saga Chapter 2 phone will be an Android smartphone with a focus on affordability, wider distribution, and additional features like Seed Vault and dapp store.
Cost reduction for the Chapter 2 phone is achieved through cheaper chipsets and screens, targeting break-even costs rather than profit margins.
The $450 price point for the Chapter 2 phone is set to break even, excluding engineering costs, with profitability expected once sales exceed 250,000 units.
The Chapter 2 phone may include civil resistance mechanisms to address challenges in identifying real users versus those farming incentives with multiple identities.
Pre-orders for the Saga phone have reached over 40,000 units in the first week, indicating strong demand from the crypto user base.
Solana Mobile is currently focused on direct-to-consumer sales and does not plan to distribute the phone through other platforms like Amazon until the third iteration of the phone, if the second one is successful.

Solana Mobile's initial goal was to sell 25,000-50,000 units of the Saga phone in a year, but they have already reached 50,000 total owners, including pre-orders.
The new target is to sell 100,000 units, which would create a compelling user base for developers and make the device line profitable.
The company's strategy has evolved to move faster and capture the growing interest in crypto, as the market has heated up significantly.
The ultimate goal of Solana Mobile remains to challenge the duopoly of Google Play and Apple's App Store and promote self-custody and open platforms for crypto.
Developers can start building and deploying apps to the Saga App Store using the available SDK and can receive grants and support from the Solana Foundation and Solana Labs.
Chapter 2 of the Saga phone is expected to be released in 2025, and in the meantime, developers are encouraged to build apps for the Saga App Store to attract users to the platform.