Hasta La Gadget!

Verizon Wireless loves to nickel and dime its customers and the upcoming Motorola Droid presents new opportunities.

Droid supports Microsoft Exchange’s ActiveSync feature that lets users access e-mail, calendar and contacts from their corporate servers running Exchange. But they could end up paying extra for the privilege, says InfoWorld.

Droid users could pay at least an additional $15 to $20 a month on top of their data plan for Exchange access. That means $45 to $50 a month including Exchange support instead of $30 a month for a data-only plan. Droid will be exclusively available on the Verizon network for $200 with a two-year contract.

The higher rate, though, will only apply for customers on a corporate or business account.

“Most customers will pay $30 for the data plan that gets them internet access and push e-mail,” Brenda Raney, a spokesperson for Verizon Wireless told Wired.com.  “Customers who use an enterprise server are, in general, business customers and an IT department is facilitating the access. [Those] are the ones who need the $50 plan.”

In some cases, Droid users who get the $30 data plan could still access Exchange, says Raney. But that will be a decision for their companies to make. “Many companies required a corporate-approved device for it to access Exchange,” she says. “In those cases, Droid users will have to get a business account with Verizon.”

The policy is not just for the Droid. It applies to all Verizon smartphones, including the BlackBerry, that want to get corporate e-mail, says Verizon.

But that may not be telling the whole story. BlackBerry users pay additional fees because the phones connect with a company’s BlackBerry Enterprise Systems and not the consumer-focused BlackBerry Internet System, points out Mashable. And that involves additional licensing fees.

The Droid, though, runs the open source Android 2.0 platform with ActiveSync support already built in. That means users shouldn’t have to pay extra fees for their device to connect with their corporate servers.

It also defeats some of the good intentions behind Android. Wasn’t Android expected to help bring in cost savings for carriers and consumers?

Updated 11/04 to include comments from Verizon

See Also:

• Review: Motorola Droid
• Video: Hands-On With Motorola’s Droid
• Verizon Attacks the iPhone, Hints at Upcoming Droid
• Review: Motorola Cliq

Photo: (tnkgrl/Flickr)

Many of the 2,000 Verizon retail stores will open early Friday so customers can get their hands on the new Motorola Droid smartphone.

Some Verizon Wireless Communications Stores will open at 7 A.M., while others will open at 8 A.M.. Customers should check with their local stores for exact times, Verizon said. Stores that are located within shopping malls will not open early.

The device is available for $199 after a $100 rebate, with a two-year contract. It will be sold at Verizon Wireless stores, online, and at Best Buy. The advantage of buying the device at Best Buy is that the retailer will offer the $100 rebate at the point of sale. Customers who buy the Droid at Verizon stores have to go through the mail-in process to secure their rebate.

We’ve already seen the MILESTONE showing off multitouch capability, something the DROID clearly lacks in the States despite the fact that Android 2.0 rocks kernel support for it — and now we’ve got another smoking gun: the official spec sheet. A quick glance at Motorola’s tech specs for the Euro-flavored handset lists “pinch and zoom” as an interface feature, so yeah, it looks like this’ll be in the shipping firmware. There’s speculation out there that Apple was somehow involved in making sure that multitouch “fell” down a flight of stairs before reaching US-bound Android devices, but really, it’s anyone’s guess what’s going on here — and Moto’s official statement isn’t helping much:

“We work very closely with our carriers and partners to deliver differentiated consumer experiences on our mobile devices. At times, similar devices come to market with different features, depending on the region, carrier preferences and consumer needs.”

Nor is Google’s:

“The Android 2.0 framework includes support for multi-touch. As with other platform technologies, such as the text-to-speech engine, carriers and OEMs can choose to implement it.”

So let the speculation — and the firmware hacking — begin.

[Via Gearlog, image via mobile-review]

Filed under: Cellphones

Motorola MILESTONE does what DROIDon’t originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:14:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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UPDATE: We have a response from Motorola here.

According to Motorola’s own Web site, the Motorola Droid for Europe (A.K.A. the Milestone) lists pinch-and-zoom as one of the features in the Interface section. Sadly, the U.S. Web site for the Droid does not list pinch-and-zoom as one of the features in the Interface section.  Sniffle, sniffle.