SHOWCASE: Motorola has unveiled the first Android 2.0-based smartphone for Europe called Milestone (the US equivalent is called DROID and is carried by Verizon Wireless).

With an ultra-thin 13.7mm QWERTY keyboard slider, and a multi-touch ‘pinch-and-zoom-supported’ display, the Milestone has generated quite a lot of buzz ahead of its availability.

Here’s a promo video of the Milestone (it’s in German).

HWM Indonesia

HWM Indonesia: This is a nice effort to steer things around for Motorola.

By going “open source”, this move might well become a breath of fresh air to Motorola fans out there.

I do however foresee a change in the marketing efforts (a lot of it) of the company.

This is because Motorola has to now target lifestyle consumers and smart executives with what this phone seems to offer.

Vijay Anand, Editor, HardwareZone.com

Vijay (HardwareZone.com): Well, well, looks like this is the company’s last ditch effort in making an impact in the mobile phone scene. This is quite reminiscent of Palm’s Pre effort.

Like it, the Milestone is certainly a nice and forward looking device, but if it’s not executed well in roll-out, availability in numbers and a proper marketing message, this might be the end of the mobile phones portfolio of the company that revolutionized mobile phone design in its heydays.

Hear’s hoping for a kick-ass Milestone indeed.

Navin Danapal, Technical Editor, HWM Malaysia

Navin (HWM Malaysia): With the revelation that Google’s Android 2 will have free Google Maps navigation, Android 2 phones are going to become GPS device killers and we’ve seen this effect in the falling stocks of GPS device leader Garmin and TomTom, the latter being a paid iPhone GPS app.No doubt Android 2’s weakness is GMaps, which will only work when there’s a telco connection and not anywhere unlike GPS devices, but considering city usage and fixed data rate plans, I think Android 2 does have an edge over GPS.

Stock prices for Garmin and TomTom plummeted in recent weeks.

All Google needs to do is offer downloadable GMaps content for telcos who don’t offer fixed plans so users will only need to have a telco connection for navigation purposes, cutting down on their bandwidth costs for maps delivery.

Then unless you’re going to the wild outdoors, Android 2 phones will do the GPS job instead of GPS devices.

City navigation might then be taken over by Android 2 phones, while players like Garmin might focus on rural adventures.

Of course, the Milestone also comes with support for Android apps and widgets from the Android Market and Google apps like Maps, Latitude, Gmail and YouTube.

Key features include:
• World’s thinnest QWERTY slider at just 13.7mm
• 3.7″ widescreen display with 854 pixel width and more than 400,000 total pixels
• Pinch & zoom and double tap features
• 5 megapixel camera with dual-LED flash
• Motorola Media Link and Motorola Phone Portal to manage and share media content across desktop, phone and the Web
• Stereo Bluetooth
• 3.5mm headset jack
• CrystalTalk Plus for superior talk quality

Additional features and apps include:
• Full suite of the Google applications: Google Maps with Latitude, Google Talk, Google Mail, YouTube
• Unified Google and Microsoft Office Contacts
• Navigation: GPS, MOTONAV * turn-by-turn navigation, Google Maps, E-Compass Latitude
• Email Support: IMAP and POP, Google Mail
• IM Support: Google Talk
• Calendar: Exchange, Calendar

According to the release, the Milestone will hit Germany and Italy first, before plans are made to expand into other European countries.