American subscribers to Google’s One cloud storage subscription service are getting a bonus this month. Select One subscribers are eligible to get a free Google Home Mini from the company in the next couple of weeks. Google will even cover the shipping to get its nimble smart speaker into your home.
But it’s not just anybody off the street who gets a free Google Home Mini. For some reason, the tech giant is only targeting subscribers to its One service with plans over 2TB, rewarding those cloud storage users who are paying $10 or more per month. The economics of the deal seem pretty good for Google, which is basically rewarding people who pay $120 annually for cloud storage with a smart speaker that currently retails for around $40 at the Google Store, and seems to be perpetually discounted at other retailers.
Aside from being a subscriber in a specific tier, there are a couple of other barriers to entry. First, the deal for a free Google Home Mini is only available to One subscribers in the United States so places like Asia or the European Union aren’t eligible.
Secondly, the deal for a free Google Home Mini is only available to One subscribers who bought a 2TB storage plan before March 4. So anyone who just thought to subscribe now is out of luck.
According to people who have parsed the legalese in the terms section, the offer looks to be valid until April 21 for U.S. users who activated their selected plan before March 4. Paid One members should already be getting emails from Google informing them of this month’s bonus prize for being good members of the club. However, if you happened not to get an email with a link to the freebie sign-up sheet, you can still head over to the Google One website and look for a card that says, “Claim Your Google Home Mini — on us.”
It’s not the first time a company has used a free smart speaker as a marketing device — services like eBay and Spotify have regularly used the Google Home Mini as a carrot to lure in new subscribers — but for Google, it looks to be a way to expand the reach of its smart speaker business and get into good graces with customers.
