Mobile operator Sprint, struggling to hang on to subscribers as it invests in rolling out its much-touted WiMax mobile broadband network, has announced Sprint Mobile Email Work, an extension of its existing mobile email service that will enable users of consumer-oriented non-PDA phones—like the iPhone-competing Instinct—to tap into corporate email systems as well as end-user email accounts like Gmail, Windows Live, and Yahoo Mail.
Sprint plans to include Sprint Mobile Email Work at no extra charge in its Everything plans, which start at $69.99 a month. Mobile Email Work will enable users to tap into email accounts hosted on Exchange 2000, 2003, and 2007 systems, as wel as Lotus Domino accounts. Email messages get pushed to the user’s phone as soon as they arrive in a user’s desktop mailbox; user can read, reply to, delete, and create new messages using their enterprise-based accounts, and all changes are synchronized back to the server.
Sprint Mobile Email Work will initially be available on the Samsung Instinct (where it’ll ship pre-loaded); Sprint will also offer the software for the LG Rumor and Fusic phones; Motorola’s RAZR, RAZR2, and KRZR; the Samsung M500, A900, and A900M, and the Sanyo 8400, Katana, and Katana II in the coming weeks in the form of a software update. Sprint eventually plans to roll Sprint Mobile Email Work out to additional handsets.
