Solana hits 100k preorders for second mobile device, five times original production

Solana Mobile said in a Feb. 12 announcement that it has attained 100,000 preorders for its upcoming “Chapter 2” mobile device.

The firm said that those 100,000 preorders occurred over less than 30 days, noting that this number means that the early preorder price ($450) will end in 48 hours. Solana Mobile’s website adds that the product should ship in the first half of 2025 now that this milestone has passed.

Solana previously sold 20,000 Saga smartphones, and of that total, 15,000 were sold in a single day. The company reported “overwhelming demand” for the product on Dec. 21, which led it to exhaust its global inventory around that time. The company also described an inventory management issue, causing it to cancel orders beyond those it could fulfill.

Incidentally, that surge in demand came after underwhelming initial sales. By Dec. 6, the company had sold just 2,500 devices, leading Solana to reconsider the mobile market.

The latest offering may represent a change in strategy. Whereas Solana’s original Saga device was a smartphone, Solana Mobile’s website does not confirm that the latest device is a phone under the FAQ item “Is Chapter 2 a phone?” Rather, it only indicates that the device is mobile.

Past sales largely driven by BONK memecoin

Solana Mobile has provided little explanation for its high sales in December. Its website states: “It wasn’t our doing; it was the Solana developers who made it happen.”

However, previous demand has been widely attributed to a price surge that drove up the value of the Solana-based memecoin BONK. Each Saga smartphone included rights to claim BONK in an airdrop. At its peak on Dec. 15, 2023, the 30 million BONK claimable through each phone was worth about $985, while Solana’s Saga phone cost just $599.

Though it is unclear whether Solana’s Chapter 2 device will be similarly profitable based on chance market conditions, Solana Mobile says users will benefit from reward programs.

Reward sponsors include the NFT marketplaces Magic Eden, DRIP, and Tensor. Others include the Solana wallets Solflare and Phantom, the NFT wallet Backpack, and DEX Jupiter. Individuals can earn rewards through referral links and Chapter 2 Preorder Tokens.