T-Mobile will launch the MDA Pro - better known as the HTC Universal - on Friday, the mobile phone carrier's German operation said today.

The device, originally dubbed the MDA IV, was actually announced last February, but T-Mobile was soon forced to put back the launch until later in the year.

The clamshell form-factor device incorporates 3G, GPRS and GSM phone connectivity, along with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It features a 640 x 480, 65536-colour display, 520MHz Intel XScale PXA27x processor and runs Windows Mobile 5.0.

T-Mobile said the MDA Pro has 43.5MB of storage for the user's data. Interestingly, the company also claimed "this system permanently saves all data stored on the MDA Pro - even if the battery is completely run down", suggesting the device may use Flash instead of RAM, or at the very least automatically backs up your data to a separate Flash archive. Further storage is provided by the SD/MMC slot.

The telco said it will charge €500 (£342/$611) for the device and a two-year contract for its Relax 100 tariff. With BusinessRelax 100 tariff, the price falls to €431 (£295/$527).

Vodafone and Orange are also lined up to offer the Universal, as the VPA IV and the SPV M5000, respectively. i-mate is also going to sell it, as the oddly named Jasjar. ®