Solana Mobile faces inventory challenges amid high demand for Saga

Solana Mobile’s third-party distributor faced inventory issues, sparking order cancellations and refunds for affected customers.

In an X post on Dec. 22, Solana Mobile, a mobile tech company developing the Solana Mobile Stack and Saga, revealed that a high surge in demand for its Saga product resulted in sellouts across the United States and the European Union.

However, amid the hype, the company, which had a limited inventory of 20,000 devices produced globally, is facing challenges in fulfilling orders due to an inventory management issues with a third-party distributor.

“In working to fulfill orders, we learned of an inventory management issue with our third-party distributor that resulted in an inaccurate representation of our inventory.”

Solana Mobile

The inventory problem led to inaccuracies in representing the available stock that is preventing the company from fulfilling orders placed after the inventory had been depleted. Additionally, orders flagged for suspicious activity, such as those with excessive device quantities or payment risk, were also canceled, Solana Mobile added.

Customers impacted by the cancellations have been notified, with refunds scheduled to be processed in the coming days, the company says. For those who have not received a cancellation notice, Solana Mobile assured that their Saga devices are en route.

Unveiled in late October 2022, the Solana Saga is an IP68-rated smartphone running on Android, featuring a 120Hz AMOLED screen, a 50MP primary camera, and up to 1TB of storage, with an initial price of $1,000.

In mid-November 2023, the blockchain security firm CertiK released a video demonstrating a critical vulnerability exploit on Solana’s flagship Saga phone. According to the firm’s analytics, the Solana Saga phone has a significant vulnerability that could allow hackers to create a backdoor into its software and compromise the device.

However, shortly after the news surfaced, Steven Laver, the lead mobile software engineer at Solana Labs, commented to the media that the video does not disclose any known vulnerabilities or security risks for Saga owners.

In early December, during an appearance on Laura Shin’s Unchained podcast, Solana CEO Anatoly Yakovenko acknowledged that the smartphone faced an uncertain future due to disappointing sales. Nevertheless, once the BONK craze began, Solana’s smartphones quickly sold out as Saga owners could claim free 30 million BONK tokens, equivalent to about $565, as of press time.