Considering the fact that the original Motorola Milestone was launched almost a year ago alongside the original Droid, it may seem a bit ridiculous that the device has just now landed in Alltel's measly lineup of Android phones (the only other option is the HTC Hero). Again, that's the original Milestone, not its recently announced successor, which closely mimics the Droid 2, nor a version that, if nothing else, includes a processor upgrade or at least a camera upgrade of some sort, but the original, unmodified, device.
Even more unbelievably, Alltel is somehow expecting customers to cough up $199 after a $100 mail-in rebate and on a new two-year contract, with the off-contract price remaining a steep $499.
While I do believe that the original Droid (the Milestone is the Droid's GSM cousin) was a game-changing phone, I don't believe that re-releasing it about ten months later is a fair decision on Alltel's part, especially when they're selling it at the price of most modern top-of-the-line devices and when their only other Android-based alternative is an even older phone that will never see the light of official FroYo. I have three words of advice for Alltel: get the EVO. Otherwise, if this is the best phone Alltel can score, we certainly won't be taking it on as our wingman.