Solana jumps into smartphone hardware with hopes to take a small portion of the market share from Apple, Samsung and Google in the coming years. 

Anatoly Yakovenko, the co-founder of Solana, spoke on the company’s new subsidiary, Solana Mobile, at TechCrunch’s annual Global Startup Conference, where he said that the new smartphone, Saga, will offer an alternative to web3 developers and a switch from the known business models.

“They’re built around a rent-seeking model where all the content is owned by the creator and you as a user rent it. When you buy a video from Amazon, you don’t own it; everyone realizes that you don’t own it.”

He added that Saga is “one of the moonshots” which could change the dynamics of web3 as developers are now at the centre of the creation. Developers have praised the company for integrating digital asset features into the hardware. The smartphone will have in-built cryptocurrency wallets, Solana Pay, and easy access to games and marketplaces built on Solana.

Yakovenko has hailed the projects as a milestone accomplishment but says that the company does not expect huge sales volumes in a few months. He estimates the sales to pick up later adding that he would be “very happy with 25,000 to 50,000 units sold in the next year.”

Solana’s drive into smartphones

Solana announced Saga in June alongside other projects adding that the flagship smartphone will be available in the first quarter of 2023. Saga will have stellar features, including a 6.67” OLED display, 12GB RAM, 512GB internal storage, and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor.

Yakovenko expressed delight with the prospects of Saga, stating that it would set a new standard in the industry. 

“Almost 7 billion people use smartphones around the world, and more than 100 million people hold digital assets – and both of those numbers will continue to grow. Saga sets a new standard for the web3 experience on mobile.”

Solana also announced the Solana Mobile Stack (SMS), a framework for Android developers to create new experiences for applications on Solana. Saga is designed by leading technology development company OSOM, with a large experience in creating hardware for Intel, Google, etc.

 

 

 

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