For Solana (SOL -1.79%) investors, one of the most highly anticipated events of 2023 has almost arrived: the official launch of the Saga crypto phone. First announced back in the summer of 2022, the Saga has been available for pre-order for months now. With this new product debut in Q1 2023, Solana will become the first Layer-1 blockchain with its own crypto phone.
The big question is how much of a boost this product launch could provide for Solana, which has already skyrocketed 130% in early 2023. Over the past week, Solana is up 10%, and some investors think it could go higher based on its ability to become the clear leader in mobile crypto. Let's take a closer look at how the new crypto phone could impact the price of Solana going forward.
What is the Saga and why does it matter?
The Saga is a mobile phone running on the Android operating system that has been optimized for crypto and blockchain. It looks much like any other Android phone, but there are a few key differences. For one, the phone makes everything you would normally do with crypto and blockchain easier, faster, and more secure. For this reason, Solana refers to this phone as a "premium mobile experience." And it will give you access to new decentralized applications that are optimized for the Solana ecosystem, such as new apps based around non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain gaming.
Image source: Getty Images.
If you buy into the argument that the future of crypto is mobile, then the Saga could be a huge leap forward for Solana. For one, it will make the entire Solana ecosystem much more attractive to users and developers, and that will increase the overall value of Solana. Second, the phone is a way of integrating together other web3 innovations from Solana into one seamless experience, so there are potential synergies here. The Saga, which will have its own app store, will play a key role in uniting all of the decentralized apps currently in the Solana ecosystem.
Market disruption potential
Where things get very interesting is when you consider how the Saga could disrupt the traditional mobile phone industry. Solana says its phone will be completely open source, which means users can modify and customize it as they see fit. The entire technology stack used to create mobile applications will be very easy to use and readily available to developers. This is very different from the model used by Apple (AAPL 0.52%), which is based on proprietary technology and walled gardens.
Moreover, Solana says its phone will be much more secure than traditional phones due to its use of tamper-proof blockchain technology for transactions. There are two big implications here. One is that your Solana phone will become your hardware wallet, and you will be able to take this super-secure blockchain wallet with you wherever you go. The other is that Solana Pay (essentially, Solana's version of Apple Pay) has an opportunity to become much more popular given the security and ease of making payments at retail locations with your Solana phone.
This is not to say that the Solana crypto phone is going to be an iPhone killer at the outset. After all, Solana is only accepting 10,000 pre-orders for the Saga. That's a drop in the ocean compared to how many iPhones are sold in a year. But if you're a long-term investor, you can think of this crypto phone from the standpoint of disruptive technology. Most disruptive innovations start with just a tiny market niche before snowballing into something much more.
Should you buy Solana?
In a best-case scenario, the Saga crypto phone could change the way people view Solana. The future of crypto is mobile, and Solana is trying to become the top blockchain for mobile crypto. Making crypto fun and easy to use on your mobile device is something you just can't get from today's mobile phones, which view crypto as an afterthought at best. For example, you can now buy a new NFT in less than 60 seconds with the new Solana phone, and you will have access to it in a secure blockchain wallet. Try doing that on your iPhone.
The risk, though, is that the new Solana phone doesn't work as advertised. Solana already has taken a lot of criticism for network outages, and any initial problems with the Saga could compound matters. The new Solana phone is not cheap -- it was selling for $1,000 in the U.S. ahead of launch date -- so imagine the PR disaster that might occur if it experiences any performance issues if the Solana blockchain goes down.
Taking a long-term view, though, the Solana phone appears to be integrated into the blockchain's overarching strategy for web3 and the decentralized internet. Given my own belief in the future of mobile crypto, I'm bullish on Solana both in the short and long term.
