Solana Mobile, a subsidiary of Solana Labs, announced this week that everyone who preorders the new Chapter 2 web3 phone will receive a non-transferable Preorder Token.
The Chapter 2 phone was first announced last month at a cheaper $450 price point, compared to the initial $1,000 cost of the Solana Saga phone launched last year. Solana ultimately reduced the Saga’s price to $599, but sales remained slow for most of 2023.
That changed when the meme coin BONK announced that Saga owners would receive 30 million BONK tokens for free. Demand for the Saga suddenly surged, with some second-hand phones on eBay selling for over $2,000 each.
Ownership of the Saga phone and its associated genesis NFT has become the gateway for receiving valuable token airdrops. Saga owners have already received free token drops from BONK, crypto publishing platform Access Protocol, and NFT project Saga Monkes.
For example, the 30 million BONK airdrop was worth approximately $700 at the time it was announced. Access Protocol later gave Saga owners 99,000 ACS tokens, then worth $250.
The Chapter 2 Preorder Token drop seems aimed at spurring demand for Solana Mobile’s new phone. The company reported over 25,000 pre-orders for the Chapter 2 within the first day of its announcement last month – already surpassing total sales of the Saga phone in its first year.
