OSOM OV1 privacy phone is canceled, becomes Solana Saga blockchain smartphone

The privacy-focused Android smartphone OSOM OV1 that should have appeared this summer is no longer available. The makers have partnered with blockchain platform Solana and the device will now appear in 2023 as the Solana Saga, ‘focused on web3’.

According to Solana, the Saga will be a flagship Android smartphone, focused on “mobile web3 experiences.” The phone will feature a Seed Vault with hardware security for key storage, a decentralized app store, and support for SolanaPay. Specifications are not yet known, but the makers promise a ‘premium hardware experience’.

Solana also announces the Solana Mobile Stack SDK at. According to the makers, this is a toolkit for ‘mobile web3 experiences’. The company states that “web3 is not yet made for smartphones” and that users need a desktop for it. The SMS SDK should change that. The company calls it a ‘crypto layer on Android for a seamless web3 experience’.

The Solana Saga should be released in the first quarter of 2023 for $1,000. Interested parties can place a reservation for a deposit of 100 dollars. The device is made by OSOM, a company founded by former Essential employees. OSOM confirms that its privacy-focused OV1 smartphone no longer comes out in that form† That will now become the Solana Saga.

OSOM stands for Out of Sight, Out of Mind and includes eight former Essential employees. The company was founded in 2020 and then said it wanted to release privacy-focused devices. At the end of 2021, the OSOM OV1 was announced: an Android smartphone focused on privacy. The makers claimed much greater control over privacy than with stock Android, including by making it possible to disable features such as GPS and cameras, without software being able to re-enable them.