Achtung! Motorola Milestone now free on contract in Germany, sort of
By Donald Melanson 
posted November 17th 2009 5:03PM
posted November 17th 2009 5:03PM
Already jealous of the multitouch functionality afforded by Motorola Droids (or Milestones, as it were) sold outside the United States? Well, you might just want to look away for this one -- it seems that O2 is now practically giving away the phone in Germany. Specifically, it's selling it for a mere €1 with a 2 year-contract, which itself can be had for as little as €20 per month. As with other non-US carries, however, you'll have to make do without Google's own free navigation service, but you will at least get a 60-day Motorola's MotoNAV service in its place, and the endless joy that comes from telling your American friends that you got a free Droid.
[Thanks, Bob]
Update: As some commenters have helpfully pointed out, that €20 a month for two years is actually on top of a standard contract, which certainly makes the deal a tad less attractive -- although you can technically still walk away with a Droid for just a handful of Euros.
[Thanks, Bob]
Update: As some commenters have helpfully pointed out, that €20 a month for two years is actually on top of a standard contract, which certainly makes the deal a tad less attractive -- although you can technically still walk away with a Droid for just a handful of Euros.
Sweet Europe...
Suckers.
Now we know: Droid $1; Google Navigation: $198.
Motorola will be out of business in a year. Who's going to service that two-year contract when the Droid stops working? Even Verizon thinks the Motorola Droid will fail and it's only been on sale for a week or so. Verizon's gonna have to run back and give Palm another shot with the Pixi. Every company thinks they have an iPhone killer and they only succeed in killing themselves.
@ AWB
Troll intelligently.
to clarify things (I'm from germany)
you can get this phone for 20 euros/month WITHOUT a contract! wich means, you'll be paying 481€ in the end and you can stay with your provider!
e.g.: you're currently with t-mobile, paying 80euros a month and you buy this phone from O2, then you'll pay 100 euros a month but your provider still is t-mobile ;)
plus, i think you can "pay off" parts of the fee at once, e.g. you get a ton of cash for christmas, so you give o2 200 euros and then the contract will run 10 months less. pretty nice i'd say.
Enough about Germany what about the UK?
well not exactly: they offer the phone for 20 euros a month payment.
this is not a phone contract and means you pay a total of 481 euros PLUS whatever contract you decide to subscribe to.
selling new phones without a contract is a new strategy by O2
btw this means the phone costs 714$ around here!
I guess it really was too good to be true
1 EUR with a 2 year 20 EUR per month contract for a phone like this would practically be a steal....
All in all it's not such a great offer. I'd rather sign a contract for a plan that fits me (let's say 20-30€ a month for decent amount of minutes and messages) and pay something like 150-200€ for the phone.
Of course, with an expensive plan (60€ or more) I'd expect the phone for free.
But eventually it depends on specific usages. I guess for people that just want to get the phone this could be a good offer, so that they don't have to pay the entire price at once.
Well, since Verizon's 3G network is so good, we shouldn't have to pay so much on our bills, right? (I don't actually have Verizon, and I don't know what is the network's quality)
Wait. How does that make sense?
Great service means no roaming charges.
It is clear now that Google has some kind of agreement with Apple about multi touch within US. I like Google less now. I hope we could flash those European images on our Android phones.
Not sure if that is true, since the HTC Eris and the Sprint Hero both have that feature on there device.
Bingo, it was a Google decision.
As for the Eris and Hero, well isn't that HTC Sense UI on top of Android? And for Milestone (not the Google Experience Phone) it is Motorola placing a little extra on top.
W
T
F
Lucky bastards :(
I like how it totals the entire cost of the contract and the phone... Much easier to compare prices that way....
In most European countries the law dictates that all advertisements MUST show the FULL price, in plain view, for the consumer to see.
The law was created as a consequence of "exotic" and complex contract offers from the telecom industry... (Go regulation!)
i'm glad motorola is doing well.
its been a while.
It's no a contract. You pay the 481 Euros over 24 months.
Milestone Canadian version will run on AT&T
1. How are you so sure about that?
See, this is what I call subsidy. Paying $200 + 2 year contract is NOT subsidy, it's a rip off. Subsidy means super low price for end user, or free. FU to US wireless carriers.
: a grant or gift of money: as a : a sum of money formerly granted by the British Parliament to the crown and raised by special taxation b : money granted by one state to another c : a grant by a government to a private person or company to assist an enterprise deemed advantageous to the public
Yeah, hopefully AT&T will catch on. With Europe's pricing of the GSM variant and VZW putting its balls in AT&T's face, perhaps they'll pick up a Droid and price it competitively.
And it comes even without sim-lock, so you can pay it off in monthly rates and get your contract at another carrier.
Another excellent point. On the other hand, US consumers (especially the fanboys) are defending their wireless carriers for locking their phones. Unbelievable and mind boggling.
Well that's europe for ya :P
i wish i could have done something like this, i paid 500€ for my phone on a 2 year 15€ contract, it would be much better if i got the phone for 20€ and paid 35€ per month.
there is a small carrier that offers a similar deal in my country, but the spread-out price is 50% higher than it should be and they do not mention the total in advertisements.
This is not on a 2-year contract for 20 euros a month.
This is a payment plan for the phone without a contract. Just the plain phone, no sim card included.
There is no news here. the article is incorrect in claiming that the phone is free. You pay it off in monthly installments. As the terms state the phone does not belong to you (the 'owner') but O2 instead until it is paid in full (480 euro)
thats it I'm moving to Germany
umm...doesn't look like you are familiar with german immigration laws. you don't move there - they move you.
In soviet russia.. Oh, forget about it.
Hey Engadget, as some posters above have also noticed -- the phone is not 1 Euro. It's 1 Euro down and 20 Euros a month for 24 months, a total of 481 Euros, just for the phone. It's like a phone financing plan. Whether you get a contract or pay-as-you-go, it's on top of this.
Thanks guys. Noted.
Google Translate can miss a few subtleties sometimes.
I still can't believe the Germans call mobile phones handys.
a celly is pretty handy, isn't it?
i still can't believe it's not butter
I Can't believe You Can't Believe it !
why do the europeans always have it so much better than us?
Because we don't worship corporations.
American philosophy seems to be " I exist for the benefit of the company". Thus companies give you want they decide you want.
EU philosophy is the opposite. "A company exists to offer stuff to us for sale". Thus, companies offer use stuff they think we might want, and we decide to buy or not.
The mobile phone (and internet) carriers seem to work in a healthier competition in Europe, but generally the prices of electronics are definitely lower in the US.
Well...it is listed under "Handys ohne Tarife" which means without a mobile service contract....
1€ + 20€ per Month is the phone. 2 Years, that is.
A Contract with O2 costs 0€ a month. Clever, aint they? 13ct/sms, 13ct/min.
this week also no starting price (usually 25€) and 15% off everything.
you cant pay more than 60€ a month. because they have a "cost airbag".
timing is 60/60. 30days cancelation period.
the internet-package which you'll want to your droid costs:
4,25€ for 30MB a month (haha!)
8,50€ for 200MB (then speed reduction)
and 21,25 for 5gb (then, again, speed reduction)
so its not really a steal for more than 40€ a month, 60$. but not that bad at all.
greetings from germany.
(nope, im not working for o2. im working for a competitor)
Okay the info is all wrong over here in Germany O2 has a program that lets you buy the phones outright for you to use with who ever you want it is called O2 my handy you pay a upfront fee for the phone can be from 1€ to 200€ and you pay the rest of the phone cost off up to 24 months you can pay the phone off anytime this has nothing to do with a contract. If you want it on contract it cost you between 30€ and up depending on your tarif for 24 months that is the difference
As FreXxX explain it, you can "buy" it for 1 € and pay your 20€ monthly fee + take a pay as you go plan without a monthly fee but use a prepaid card instead. Don´t worry North America, pretty soon you´ll see lot of them in ebay.
The real question is how and why is O2-Telefonica offering a Nav solution through Motorola for the droid but not for the pre?
That´s scary...I hoped we´ll never get the silly US Nav Solutions (VZW NAV, Sprint Navigator...) monthly fee based model and keep our old european offline but cheap and much better (TomTom,Navigon,Garmin) Model. You buy it once and lay back. My question is: what should i do when i have no coverage? And there´s still a lot of places with bad or no coverage even in Germany
My Droid touchscreen was spazzing out all of today, but I can confirm that as of today, multitouch works in PicSay (free), at least the pinch gesture does, also my onscreen keyboard, with which i use the colemak keyboard layout, just went from barely acceptable to crazy accurate. I think Motorola pushed an update to enable multitouch, and I await its implementation anxiously in Musical Lite so I can play piano on my Droid.