Solana Mobile is planning to launch a successor to its Saga crypto smartphone, tapping into a surge in demand for the device since late last year, according to a person familiar with the matter, CoinDesk reported.
The new phone will include the same features as Saga — including a built-in crypto wallet, dapp store and custom Android software — but will use different hardware and offer the device at a cheaper price, the person said.
The Saga phone was priced at $1,000 on launch but was later reduced to $599 after the device initially struggled to gain traction. That suddenly changed in December as the price of the Solana-based memecoin bonk went parabolic, presenting an arbitrage opportunity given the device came with 30 million of the tokens. The firm's limited stock of 20,000 phones promptly sold out in the U.S. and EU, with some orders canceled and refunded following inventory issues.
Saga airdrop hype continues
Bonk surged by over 800% last month from $0.0000038 to a peak of $0.000035 on Dec. 15 — the day the phones sold out. However, bonk has since fallen sharply, down 60% to a current price of $0.000014, according to The Block's price page.
BONK/USD price chart. Image: The Block/TradingView.
At its peak, the 30 million bonk tokens that came with Saga phones, only worth a few dollars when the device first launched, were valued at $1,140 — 90% more than the device's $599 cost. However, the subsequent fall in the price of bonk tokens currently places that value at $420, below the phone's price.
Despite the drop, at least two Saga phones were reportedly sold for as much as $5,000 on eBay, and secondary device sales are still receiving bids as high as $3,200 as the hype surrounding potential future airdrops for phone holders continues.
Solana Mobile did not respond to a request for comment from The Block.