According to CoinDesk, Solana Mobile has reached 100,000 preorders for its second crypto-enabled smartphone, amounting to $45 million in sales. The company had set the 100,000 preorder milestone as a precondition for developing a second device. With this achievement, Solana Mobile plans to proceed with the project and aims to deliver units to customers in early 2025.
Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko said that with at least 100,000 customers having already paid $450, the economics for selling an affordable second device are more viable than the numbers that backed Solana's experimental first phone, which originally retailed for $1,000. The second phone, like the first, will have custom features designed to integrate buying, selling, holding, and using cryptocurrencies, specifically those on the Solana blockchain, into the device's core functionality.
Yakovenko believes that focusing on crypto-specific features will help Solana Mobile differentiate itself from tech giants like Apple and Google. The company aims to reach a critical mass of users necessary for attracting app developers to build games for Solana's challenger ecosystem. Unlike Apple and Google, Solana's app store does not charge the 20% to 30% fee against its app store's merchants, making it easier to disrupt the app stores than Visa and Mastercard, according to Yakovenko.
