Slideshow: Motorola Droid vs. Apple iPhone 3GS
Motorola Droid Vs. Apple IPhone 3GS: Finally, a Contender?

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Verizon offers three data plans for Droid customers: $30 month on top of your voice plan's rate for non-Exchange usage, $45 per month on top of your voice plan's rate for Exchange usage, and $50 per month total cost for a data-only plan (whether or not you use it to access Exchange). Verizon spokeswoman Brenda Raney notes that the requirement to get the $45 "smartphone plan" for corporate e-mail usage applies to any smartphone, such as the BlackBerry -- not just to the Droid. "The Droid is primarily a consumer phone," Raney adds.

That pricing contrasts with AT&T's $30 monthly data plan (on top of your voice plan's rates) for the Apple iPhone and Research in Motion BlackBerry, the two most popular business-class smartphones; AT&T offers a $35-per-month data-only plan for the BlackBerry, but has no such plan for the iPhone. Sprint doesn't break out its data plans' costs for the Palm Pre and BlackBerry, but its smartphone plans cost the same as AT&T's, with a $30-per-month difference in charges for its voice-only phones' plans and its data-capable phones' plans. Like Verizon, Sprint offers a data-only plan for these devices for $50 per month.

Like most smartphones, the Droid does not support IBM's Lotus Notes or Novell's Groupwise. It does support Google's Gmail in addition to Exchange.

This story, "Want a Droid for work e-mail? It'll cost you extra," was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in mobile, Google Android, iPhone, and BlackBerry at InfoWorld.com.