US mobile operator Sprint Nextel is to offer combined corporate and personal email access via mid-range devices such as the Motorola RAZR, the company announced yesterday. The move marks a major shift in strategy, as corporate e-mail is usually limited to high-end smartphones such as the Blackberry. Sprint said in a statement that subscribers using 12 of its handsets, from vendors such as Motorola, Samsung and LG, would be able to access corporate Microsoft Exchange Server and IBM Lotus Notes accounts via its Sprint Mobile Email Work application. Support for personal e-mail such as Gmail and Hotmail is also supported. The service is free under Sprint’s various unlimited plans, but costs an extra US$9.99 a month with other plans.

The move to drive corporate e-mail access into mass-market is seen as the latest strategy by Sprint to curb its declining US market share. The service will also be available on the Samsung Instinct, which is launched exclusively by Sprint today and is being seen as a rival to the new 3G iPhone, which US operator AT&T is launching next month.