Solana
Mobile
plans
to
launch
a
second
smartphone
as
it
looks
to
ride
the
unlikely
success
of
its
first
crypto-ready
smartphone,
a
person
familiar
with
the
matter
said.
The
upcoming
phone
will
have
the
same
basic
features
as
its
predecessor,
called
Saga:
an
onboard
crypto
wallet,
custom
Android
software
and
a
“dApp
store”
for
crypto
applications
–
but
at
a
cheaper
price
point
and
with
different
hardware,
the
person
said.
The
original
phone
cost
$1000
when
it
first
launched
last
year
but
later
saw
prices
reduced
amid
struggling
sales.
The
new
Solana
Mobile
phone
could
help
tamp
down
what’s
become
a
red-hot
secondary
market
for
the
severely
limited
supply
of
existing
Saga
smartphones.
At
press
time
a
factory-sealed
Saga
device
was
catching
bids
at
$3,200
on
eBay,
five
times
more
than
its
price
five
weeks
ago.
Back
then
Saga’s
backers
were
preparing
to
move
on
from
their
experimental
phone,
which
had
sought
to
create
a
mobile-first
platform
for
crypto
traders
and
NFT
collectors
but
struggled
to
find
a
market
big
enough
to
justify
its
existence.
That
changed
in
an
instant
when
crypto
traders
realized
the
phone
came
with
an
allocation
of
BONK
tokens
that
more
than
covered
the
price
of
the
device.
In
less
than
a
week
the
Saga
sold
out.
In
the
ensuing
month
Saga
phones
continued
to
yield
dividends
for
their
owners,
with
various
projects
airdropping
lucrative
tokens
and
NFT
to
the
15,000
phones
in
the
wild.
Those
airdrops
have
bolstered
the
community
around
Saga
and
prompted
more
Solana
developers
to
look
into
building
mobile
applications.
A
representative
for
Solana
Mobile
did
not
immediately
return
a
request
for
comment.