Corporate e-mail expands to lower-end Sprint Nextel phones

Sprint Nextel Corp. is hoping to bridge the gap between enterprise users and multimedia devices with a new mobile e-mail service.
The offering, awkwardly dubbed Sprint Mobile Email Work, allows customers with the new Samsung Instinct and other handsets to access Microsoft Exchange Server and IBM Lotus Notes accounts on their phones. The service expands on an existing, consumer-facing offering that delivers on-the-go access to accounts from e-mail providers including AOL, Gmail, Windows Live and Yahoo Mail, and has been added to several packages including the carrier’s Everything plans and the $30-a-month Sprint Pro Pack data plan.
Sprint said the service will be available “in the coming weeks” on 11 other phones including the Rumor and Fusic from LG Electronics Co. Ltd. and the Motorola Razr, Razr2 and Krzr. It is preloaded on the Instinct; users with other compatible handsets will be able to download the application.
The offering, which is powered by Seven, is the latest effort from carriers and other players to expand mobile e-mail beyond high-end users to more mainstream consumers. While BlackBerry continues to dominate the enterprise market, other players are looking to gain traction with no-frills services and advertising-subsidized offerings.