OpenMoko this week announced that the Canadian company Koolu is now the global distributor for Openmoko's Neo FreeRunner open source phone (repackaged as the W.E. Phone), starting in the U.S. and Europe.

"The Neo FreeRunner shipped on July 4th, and was billed as a completely open source, hackable hardware platform based on GNU Linux and the OpenMoko.org phone stack," according to LinuxDevices. "Users are free to install and run new operating system firmware, for example, in order to add native Linux software applications of their own choosing. As distributed by Koolu, the W.E. Phone version of the FreeRunner appears to have some software customizations, including Google Apps."

"One rather curious angle is that Koolu is promoting a program that will get you a phone for free - if you convince 25 people to sign up for the Premier version of Google Apps, or 100 people to sign up for the free version, using their affiliate links," notes OStatic's Mike Gunderloy. "More traditional pricing without the marketing scheme comes to $399 each, $384 per phone in 5 packs or $369 per phone in 10-pack (all prices in Canadian dollars)."

"What really got us going is the fact that Koolu Inc. are working on a Google Android version of the phone," writes AndroidGuys' Vamien McKalin...

More here from IntoMobile ... more here from BGR ... more here from PHONE Mag ... and the press release is here.