This is what we call a well-kept secret. After months of work behind closed doors, Ledger has just announced the launch of its new digital wallet called "Stax".
The product was presented on Tuesday in Paris at the now famous annual unicorn conference 🇫🇷 (Op3n) where The Big Whale 🐳 was. "This is an important step in Ledger's development," said its CEO, Pascal Gauthier.
For this project, the world leader in digital asset preservation has gone to great lengths to work with... Tony Fadell. The 53-year-old American is the creator of the iPod, which made Apple a worldwide success in the 2000s.
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"When Ledger came looking for me, I thought about it at first," says Tony Fadell. And then I thought I should go ahead and invent the iPod of crypto." Just that!
A real challenge for Ledger
Unlike Ledger's previous products - the Nano S and X - the Stax is not presented as a USB flash drive.
It is a kind of credit card with a double touch screen (it accepts more than 5000 cryptos) which offers a larger surface and an easier use than the Nano where there is a small screen and two buttons.
"Stax's goal is to bring the security of Nano with simpler usage for the general public," said Charles Guillemet, Ledger's technology manager.
Is this a guarantee of success? Far from it, and Ledger knows that the challenge is huge. Because if sales have strongly increased in recent weeks thanks to the fall of FTX - Ledger has exceeded 6 million devices sold since its inception - users must take hold of the product. And agree to pay 279 euros; the Nano X costs 149 euros.
Stax will try to make people forget the commercial failure of Ledger Blue, a wallet with a screen released in 2016 that never met its public. The fault, perhaps, to a less neat design and few additional features compared to the Nano. And also to the price: like the Stax, it was sold 279 euros.
Several customers reacted to the Stax one by explaining that it was "too expensive." The first Stax should arrive at the end of March 2023. On the side of Ledger's investors, however, they are reassuring. "When it was launched, the iPod was also considered too expensive and that didn't stop it from becoming a huge success."
However, it took two-three years before it really took off.
