Solana has unveiled an Android-powered software solution for developing web3 apps along with its own smartphone, called Saga. With the launch of its new Android phone, Solana Labs, the team that created Solana, hopes to enter the telecom market.
The announcement of the phone was made recently in New York City, where they also announced the Solana Stack mobile software.
Solana Mobile Stack will enable Android app developments. The open-source software tool called SMS will enable the design and development of Android apps on the Solana blockchain.
“Developers have been blocked for too long from creating truly decentralized mobile apps because the existing gatekeeper model just doesn’t work anymore.” “The Solana Mobile Stack shows a new path forward on Solana that is open source, secure, optimized for web3, and easy to use,” Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana said.
Beginning in early 2023, the Saga smartphone will retail for about $1,000. A Web3 dapp store with Solana pays integration will be available on the phone. On-chain payments based on QR codes will be possible. All of these capabilities plus a Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor will be present in the Saga smartphone. 512 GB of storage, 12 GB of RAM, and a 6.67 OLED display are included.
A mobile wallet adapter and a seed vault are also included with the phone. The secret keys and seed phrases on the phone will be safely stored thanks to the seed vault.
“Everything is going mobile. In most countries, most of the access happens through mobile phones. But crypto mobile is behind the times,” Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO of FTX and a Solana backer mentioned.
Solana Labs also stated that it will work closely with different companies, including Magic Eden (NFT Marketplace), Phantom (Wallet Provider), and DeFi platform Orca to build the ecosystem of the smartphone.
Another key launch by the team is the new Solana dapp. The dapp will provide access to web3 apps and wallets with zero fees. The Solana Foundation will create a $10 million developer ecosystem fund as part of the introduction of the Solana Mobile Stack in order to offer grants to mobile innovators.
“Developers can now bring the power of Solana to the computers in our pockets, not just our backpacks,” Raj Gokal, co-founder of Solana concluded.