Motorola Droid Renamed ‘Milestone’ For Europeans

Motorola’s attempt at an iPhone killer, dubbed the Motorola Droid, is to get a name change when it appears in Germany and will instead be known as the Milestone.

A leaked O2 product document indicates that it will launch in Germany as soon as next week (9 November) on the O2 network priced at 80 euros (£72) or 120 euros (£108), depending on package.

However, a UK spokeswoman told eWEEK Europe that there is currently no official word yet on a UK launch, outside of Germany and Italy.

“Last week in the US and today in Europe, Motorola unveiled the second phone in its Android portfolio and the first device in the world powered by Android 2.0,” said Motorola in a statement. “This device is called Motorola Milestone around the globe and Droid in the US.”

“To date, Milestone has been announced in Germany, Italy and Argentina. In the US, the device is known as Droid,” it added. “We’ve not yet announced availability of this device in other markets, but look forward to continuing to expand our Android-based portfolio around the world.”

There are hopes of a modest recovery in the global handset market after a recent report from Strategy Analytics found that Samsung and LG had shipped record volumes in the third quarter, although Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola lagged.

Motorola is currently occupying fifth place overall and shipped 13.6 million handsets worldwide during the third quarter, which was down from 14.8 million the quarter before, and 25.4 million a year earlier. However, there is hope that with its two Android smartphones, the Droid and the Cliq, its outlook is looking more positive.