Solana ventures into smartphones with a focus on Web3 mobile apps
Summary:
- Solana developers have unveiled a flagship Android smartphone dubbed Saga.
- The phone will be available for pre-order immediately and for delivery in early 2023.
- Saga will also feature a unique Solana feature built-in.
- Solana developers have also released Solana Mobile Stack, an open source SDK for Android enabling Web3 apps on Solana.
Solana developers are stepping into the telecom industry by launching a flagship Android smartphone dubbed Saga. The smartphone is the first product of Solana’s new subsidiary, Solana Mobile.
According to the official Saga website, the smartphone will feature a 6.67″ OLED display, 512GB storage and the latest Snapdragon® 8+ Gen 1 flagship mobile platform. seed fort of Solana Mobile Stack and an additional on-device secure element that keeps private keys, seed phrases, and secrets “separate from the application layer while still being able to interact with running applications on the device or in a mobile browser.’
$100 for Saga pre-orders, applied to the expected final cost of $1,000.
Saga will also be explicitly designed for Web3 features such as decentralized exchanges, NFT markets and more. The Saga smartphone will be available immediately for pre-order, with deliveries estimated in early 2023.
The Solana team has also provided a refundable pre-order fee of $100 which will be applied to the final estimated cost of $1,000. However, developers will have priority when delivering the smartphone to test the Solana Mobile Stack and Saga.
Smartphones are key to Web3 adoption.
Raj Gokal, the co-founder of Solana, explained that mobile devices such as Saga were key to the adoption of Web3. He said:
We chose the name Saga because the history of cryptography is still being written. This is the next chapter in this story and we believe that opening up crypto to mobile will lead to greater adoption, better understanding, and more opportunity.
OSOM will design and manufacture Saga. It is a leading Android development company with extensive experience building hardware for Google, Apple, Intel and others.
Jason Keats, co-founder and CEO of OSOM, further reiterated the importance of mobile devices in driving Web3 adoption. He explained:
Saga starts from first principles to create a mobile experience for individuals, developers and ecosystem participants that ushers in a new era of mobility.
The world needs new hardware to embrace the future that is Web3, and building a future-ready ecosystem without being burdened by legacy ecosystems from the past is extremely exciting for us.
Solana is also launching Solana Mobile Stack.
Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko unveiled Saga at an event in New York, where he also provided further details on the previously mentioned Solana Mobile Stack: an Android framework that allows developers to “create experiences rich mobiles for wallets and apps on Solana and create a secure element for private key management.’
The Solana Mobile Stack (SMS) is an open source software development kit optimized for Web3 and easy to use. It also has a new set of libraries for wallets and apps, giving developers the foundation to build rich dApp experiences on Solana.
