Solana cuts price of its Saga phone by 40% four months after launch

The Android-based Solana Saga has seen a significant price reduction from its iPhone-like starting price of $1,000 down to $599. 

Solana Mobile, a subsidiary of Solana Labs, announced the news via Twitter on Wednesday. The company said the $400 cut is “the next step to get wider adoption of mobile web3 and continue to improve the experience for the Solana mobile community.”

The numbers tell a slightly different story.

On-chain data compiled by Flipside Crypto shows that sales for the Solana Saga have come down massively since their April and May highs. 

The data tracks the number of Saga Genesis NFT mints, something that occurs when the owner of a Solana Saga sets up their phone and the Solana app store. 

As of July 25, there are slightly more than 2,100 unique Saga Genesis NFT owners. This suggests that approximately this many Solana Sagas have been activated since early April.

Emmett Hollyer, the head of business operations for Solana Mobile, told Blockworks that price cuts like this are standard in the industry.

“Implementing a price reduction several months after launch is common practice in the consumer electronics business, particularly with smartphones,” Hollyer said. 

“A lower price will accelerate user adoption,” he added.

Twitter users who say they purchased the Solana Saga at the $1,000 price point voiced their frustration with Solana’s decision. Others showed support for the price reduction.

One user said they regretted buying the phone and said this was a “terrible look.”

In the replies to that tweet, some argued that early adopters often pay a premium. In this case, that would be the people who bought the first 2,000 Solana Sagas.

Other argued that early owners of the phone were able to mint exclusive Claynosaurz NFTs. The floor price for one of these collectibles on Magic Eden is about 33 SOL, which equates to over $800. This more than covers the price differential of $400. 

The first rumblings of the Solana Saga occurred way back in June 2022, when the company unveiled their plan to give people an opportunity to manage their crypto and NFT holdings from a mobile device.

“We live our lives on our mobile devices — except for Web3 because there hasn’t been a mobile-centric approach to private key management,” Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko told Blockworks at the time. 

The phone launched in April, starting out with 16 decentralized apps on its native app store, including Audius, Dialect, Jupiter Aggregator, Ledger and Magic Eden among others.

Updated Aug. 10, 2023 at 4:36 pm ET: Added comment from Emmett Hollyer, the head of business operations for Solana Mobile.

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