People have stopped caring about smartphones, my colleague wrote Anton D Nagy a few days ago. Part of the reason for this behavior, he says (and with which I completely agree), is that smartphones have become boring, and there is nothing exciting about the upcoming smartphones. There is currently very little innovation in the smartphone space, and although there are some companies taking steps to change the perception, the idea is largely the same.
To compete with big players like Apple and Samsung, new companies often have to take a different approach to position themselves clearly and bring the sense of innovation. Nothing, the company founded by OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei will soon be launching an Android smartphone with more than 900 LEDs on the back – it serves as a notification light, charging indicator, and whatnot. Similarly, OSOM, a startup founded by former Essential employees, announced earlier this year that it would release a privacy-focused smartphone called OV1 in Q4 2022.
OSOM revealed at the time that its OV1 smartphone would offer a private experience. Even though we never knew what the company meant private experiencesdid reveal that the OV1 smartphone will be powered by a Snapdragon 8 disk drive and will come with a privacy cable that will come with a rotary switch that will allow users to turn off ‘data collection’. And in a massive turnaround, it appears the company has changed its plan.
The company no longer markets the OV1 as a privacy-oriented smartphone. In fact, it appears that the company has completely scrapped the OV1 project. Instead, OSOM partnered with Solana, a public blockchain company, to launch a new smartphone called Solana Saga. Solana says that Saga is a Web3-focused smartphone. But what exactly will Solana Saga offer, and how is it different from other Android smartphones? Let’s break it down for you.
What is the Solana Saga smartphone and what will it offer?
The company markets Saga as a smartphone that will offer unique functionality and features that are tightly integrated with the Solana blockchain. It’s a smartphone blockchain which will make it easy and secure to transact in web3 and manage digital assets. It will be powered by Android, but instead of containing Google Mobile Services (GMS) – the tool that Google offers developers to support apps across several different versions of Android – will include the Solana Saga Solana Mobile Stack (SMS).
The Solana Mobile Stack will allow users to store their cryptocurrency wallet keys securely on the device on a “Secure Element”. It will also help developers with the tools needed to build secure wallets and Web3 applications for Solana Saga. And oh, for those looking for specs, as you would expect from a $ 1000 smartphone, the Solana Saga would offer high specs. Solana says the Saga will have a 6.67-inch screen, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 processor, 12 GB of RAM and 128 GB of fast internal storage.
With the Saga smartphone, it seems like Solana wants to take the lead in the upcoming space and developers want to build the whole world of web3 applications and cryptocurrency wallets. It will provide developers with the tools and APIs needed to build the entire ecosystem. But do we really need Blockchain smartphones now?
Why Blockchain smartphones do not make sense (at the moment)
To put it simply: no, not really. We can already sg decentralized applications on any Android smartphone. You just need to install the respective cryptocurrency wallet application on your smartphone and make payments through those applications. the rest of the decentralized applications is also available to everyone on the app stores. Yes, the Solana Saga will offer more privacy and security features, but the encryption systems on existing cryptocurrency wallets are also hard to crack and no one keeps their life savings on their smartphone anyway.
And then there is the case of HTC EXODUS. The company launched its first blockchain smartphone in 2018, but it did not live up to its expectations. There was nothing really exceptionally about the EXODUS, and it did not resonate with the masses. There is also the case that the current state of web3 (sort of) is unclear to the non-tech people. Most of the projects / applications are either currently in the development stage or are half-baked and cart platforms. Yes, Solana provides a development tool to the developer, but at present there is no guarantee that its application ecosystem will be as good as for example Google Play Store or the Apple App Store.
And finally, the price tag. Solana has set a $ 1000 price tag on the Saga smartphone. The high cost of the smartphone can pull away half of those interested. There are many excellent Android smartphones available at half the price, and you can use the currently available cryptocurrency wallets on all these devices, which defeats the whole purpose of owning a Blockchain smartphone. Sure, Blockchain smartphones may make sense in the future, but do they currently? what are your thoughts Would you be interested in buying one? Let us know in the comments section below!