The quad-band
GSM/
UMTS version of the Droid is the Motorola A853 (Milestone). While the phone's internal hardware (besides cellular) is the same, differences include out-of-the-box
multi-touch support enabled, a trial version of Motorola's MOTONAV service (instead of Droid's US-only Google Maps Navigation) and an 8 GB microSDHC card, instead of the Droid's 16 GB microSDHC card.
Geographic launch information The launch countries for the Motorola Milestone included Germany, Italy, and Argentina on November 9, 2009. Other European countries soon followed. Joining this trend, a new, North American, version of the Motorola Milestone was released in Canada in February 2010. This new version supports 3G bands II and V instead of bands I and VIII so it is compatible with Rogers, Bell, and Telus in Canada, and with AT&T and T-Mobile (2G Only) in the US. At this time, Motorola Milestone is only available from Telus. The Milestone is also available in the U.S. from several regional GSM carriers, like
Cincinnati Bell.
United Kingdom The phone was launched in the
United Kingdom on Thursday December 10, 2009, as the
Motorola Milestone. The exclusive sales outlet for the phone,
eXpansys, reported that all stocks of the phone had completely sold out within 3 hours of its debut. The sell-out was considered a major victory for Motorola, which had had little success with its prior
Windows Mobile-based phones, and had been counting on Android-based phones for future growth.
Middle East The phone was launched in the
Middle East in 2010, it included a serious limitation as Google prohibited access to its Android Market application for most Middle Eastern countries. No reasonable alternative was provided by Google.
Asia, India The Milestone was launched in
Hong Kong on December 21, 2009, as the sixth Android device in the region for
HKD 4,680 with an 8 GB
microSDHC card included. This version is in English but supports Chinese handwriting that originated from the
Motorola MING and
pinyin input method. While MOTONAV is included, it does not work and is not officially supported. The phone can be updated to Android 2.1 since Q1 2010, the update features a Chinese user interface and more Chinese input methods such as
Changjie. The Milestone launched in India on 30 March 2010, priced at 32,000
INR, approximately US$680.
Locked bootloader Unlike the DROID, the Milestone has a
bootloader that only allows signed
firmware to load. This creates difficulties for users who wish to boot custom ROM images not signed by Motorola that have become popular in the Droid modding community. This has caused discontent in the Droid community in markets foreign to the US, with numerous petitions being created. Whether the disabling of custom boot loaders is due to retailer, carrier, manufacturer, or legal restrictions is unknown. Early in 2011 the community around Milestone ROM-Development and the Polish National
BOINC Team initiated AndrOINC to decipher the RSA 1024-bit signature and make customizing possible. The project has been down since April 2011 because the German police confiscated the server on suspicion that it was involved with an illegal P2P service. In June 2011, Motorola committed to delivering an unlockable and relockable bootloader solution for phones receiving updates later that year. This will likely not include the Milestone as Motorola has not indicated it will update the Milestone past Android 2.2/Froyo.
Root access Despite the locked bootloader, the Motorola Milestone has been successfully rooted. Several step-by-step guides are available on the web.
Software releases 2.0.1 update Two months after Motorola Droid received the update, the 2.0.1 update was released to fix a bug with the camera autofocus.
2.1 update The Motorola Milestone update rolled out in the beginning of May 2010, five months after the introduction of Android 2.1. After the update several problems were discovered, but since then firmware 2.1 update 1 has been released, which fixes some of the issues. Although Motorola claimed, that they have fixed the random MP3 player start problems, they still occur. These problems affect only some users.
2.2 update The official Android 2.2 Froyo update was released on March 16, 2011, for UK users with a slow rollout to the rest of Europe. As of March 20, the update was still being rolled out and was not available in all countries. Community-created ROMs of Android 2.2 (Froyo), Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), and Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) have existed for some time, typically based on kernels from leaked updates. The continued postponing of Milestone updates has become known under the term "Motofail" in
Central and
South America. • See
Android operating system for later software releases. ==Motorola Motoroi==