In mid-December 2023, the Solana Mobile Saga smartphone experienced a significant boost in sales, largely driven by the crypto community’s enthusiasm.
This surge was linked to the realization that purchasing the Saga phone could be highly profitable. Each owner of the Saga phone was entitled to an airdrop of 30 million Bonk (BONK) tokens, and given the token’s recent price increase, this meant that buyers could potentially receive around $1,000 in BONK tokens for a $599 phone investment.
On 16 December 2023, amidst this sales frenzy, Solana Mobile announced on social media platform X that the Saga smartphone was completely sold out. The company expressed profound gratitude for the community’s support and shared their excitement for the future, marking this event as a historic moment.
However, following this announcement, there was a noticeable silence from Solana Mobile. This lack of communication coincided with growing concerns and speculation among customers on Solana Mobile’s Discord server, many of whom were anxiously awaiting updates about their orders.
The silence was eventually broken on 22 December 2023, when Solana Mobile provided a crucial update on X regarding the order fulfillment process. They disclosed that the unexpected high demand had led to the sell-out of their limited global inventory of 20,000 devices. During the process of fulfilling these orders, they encountered an inventory management issue with their third-party distributor. This issue resulted in an inaccurate representation of their inventory, leading to the unfortunate situation where they could not fulfill orders placed after the inventory was depleted.
Additionally, Solana Mobile announced the cancellation of certain orders that were flagged for suspicious activity, such as excessive device orders or payment risks. This step was taken to ensure that the Saga smartphone reached as many genuine users as possible.
Affected customers have apparently been informed about their order cancellation and were assured of refunds in the coming days. Solana Mobile expressed their understanding of the disappointment this might cause and apologized for the inconvenience.
For customers who did not receive a cancellation notice, Solana Mobile confirmed that their Saga smartphones were on their way. The company says it is prioritizing delivery with the aim of sending out all shipping notifications before the end of the year.
Solana Mobile concluded its update by reiterating its appreciation for the community’s support and its commitment to keeping customers informed throughout the process. This update provided much-needed clarity and reassurance to the Saga smartphone buyers amidst a period of uncertainty and high anticipation.
At the time of writing, the BONK token is trading at $0.0000195, up over 351% in the past 30-day period, which means 30 million BONK tokens are currently worth around $585.
As Decrypt pointed out yesterday, besides the attraction of receiving 30 million BONK tokens, purchasers of the Solana Saga phone are excited about several other current/future airdrops, which include those mentioned in its report:
- Access Protocol Airdrop: This content monetization platform offered 100,000 ACS tokens to each phone owner, boosting the token’s value to about $370.
- Honeyland Game Perk: Saga owners receive 50 HXD tokens and a “Beemium” in-game upgrade from this Solana-based mobile game, a combined value of around $35.
- Samoyedcoin (SAMO) Airdrop: This established dog-themed coin announced an upcoming airdrop for Saga owners, with details to be revealed.
- Solend Airdrop: The lending protocol Solend, led by founder Rooter, hinted at an airdrop for Saga owners, alongside a separate one for past and current Solend users.
- ShdwDrive Feature: Saga owners can mine SHDW tokens by running an “Auditor Node,” supporting the decentralized storage platform for Web3 builders.
- Helium Mobile Trial: U.S. Saga owners can access a free month-long trial of this crypto-powered 5G wireless service.
- Elementerra Game Staking: Owners of Saga Genesis NFTs can stake their NFT pass to earn ELE tokens, ahead of the game’s launch in January 2024.
