{"id":706,"date":"2022-06-28T03:41:55","date_gmt":"2022-06-28T03:41:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/solanacrypto.news\/2022\/06\/28\/solana-labs-has-about-10-people-working-on-its-saga-mobile-phone-solana-said-last-week-it-plans-to-unveil-a-mobile-phone\/"},"modified":"2022-06-28T03:41:55","modified_gmt":"2022-06-28T03:41:55","slug":"solana-labs-has-about-10-people-working-on-its-saga-mobile-phone-solana-said-last-week-it-plans-to-unveil-a-mobile-phone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/solanacrypto.news\/2022\/06\/28\/solana-labs-has-about-10-people-working-on-its-saga-mobile-phone-solana-said-last-week-it-plans-to-unveil-a-mobile-phone\/","title":{"rendered":"Solana Labs Has About 10 People Working on Its Saga Mobile Phone Solana said last week it plans to unveil a mobile phone"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Solana Labs is dedicating a large part of its team to building its mobile effort, according to an exclusive interview with the company\u2019s head of communications.<\/p>\n

Solana Labs has \u201cabout\u201d 10 people working on its Solana Mobile Stack (SMS) initiative, according to Austin Federa. The company, which develops the Solana blockchain, had 71 full-time employees as of April, Fortune reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The head of communications declined to make public the capital expenditure earmarked for SMS.<\/p>\n

Solana said<\/a> last week it plans to unveil a mobile phone called Saga, with unique hardware and software, which would make it easier for users to access web3. \u201cIt\u2019s time for crypto to go mobile,\u201d the company posted on its website. Most web3 applications are currently accessed via desktop.<\/p>\n

Big Undertaking<\/h4>\n

Making \u201ccrypto go mobile\u201d is a huge security and user-experience undertaking, which others have tried to tackle before. Some notable examples which didn\u2019t get traction are the Sirin Labs\u2019s Finney phone, PundiX\u2019s Xphone and HTC\u2019s Exodus. Samsung added support<\/a> for hardware wallets last year.<\/p>\n

For comparison with SMS\u2019s effort, Sirin Labs had nine people on its executive team, according to Craft.co<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The head of communications added that Solana\u2019s co-founder, Anatoly Yakovenko, had wanted to take Solana towards mobile users for a long time, but serious conversations kicked off this January.<\/p>\n

OSOM Partnership<\/h4>\n

To deliver on the ambitious plan, the blockchain developer has partnered with OSOM, a smartphone maker founded by former head of iPad architecture Jason Keats<\/a>. Solana would not have attempted to launch the Saga without Keats\u2019 expertise, Federa said.<\/p>\n

Solana\u2019s phone will use a modified version of Google\u2019s operating system. The Saga will have the entire Google Mobile Suite<\/a>, which means the phone is coming with the Google Play Store, along with a host of APIs developed by Google for Android.<\/p>\n

More importantly for its crypto focus, the phone will come with a key custody mechanism. It will also be pre-loaded with the Solana dApp Store, Solana Pay for Android and the so-called Mobile Wallet Adapter, which connects wallets and apps and allows for transactions to be signed.<\/p>\n