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By Ben King, 31 July 2002 16:45

NEWS As the UK's mobile networks line up to bring phone-enabled PocketPCs to the market, there's one notable absentee - T-Mobile, whose plans are being blocked by O2's exclusivity deal on the xda. Microsoft's PocketPC 2002 phone edition was launched at Cannes in February, providing a first step on the road to truly integrated handheld computers and phones. The operating system basically provides a PocketPC with built-in GPRS wireless data and phone capabilities. Vodafone launched the HP Jornada 928 wda last week and Orange has confirmed that they plan to follow suit soon. Last year O2 unveiled its xda device, built by the company that made Compaq's iPaqs, Taiwan's HTC - and made a big fanfare about its exclusivity. O2's deal with HTC gives it a lifetime exclusive right to sell the device in all its markets, including the UK and Germany. However, the T-Mobile group has also done a deal with HTC for a very similar device, the MDA, which was first announced at CeBIT and is due to be launched in Germany next month, T-Mobile says. Aside from branding the xda and the MDA look almost identical, and aside from some software tweaks they are believed to be basically the same device, though the specs of the MDA are not yet public. A spokeswoman for O2 said that "the exclusivity deal in Germany is very slightly different in that it does allows T-Mobile to market the MDA, which is not the same device though we believe the hardware to be similar." In other words, it doesn't allow T-Mobile to sell the MDA in the UK. A spokesman for T-Mobile says that the company is "reviewing the viability [of MDA] in other markets" - which could well mean that it's trying to work out whether it can get around O2's exclusivity deal. The xda/MDA has an interesting history - it is widely rumoured to have originally been a Compaq project, codenamed Wallaby, which Compaq decided not to market, and which ended up being sold to O2 and T-Mobile. Another company, Carrier Devices Limited, has another very similar device on its website, named Joey (a baby Wallaby). They wouldn't return our emails requesting comment. These phone-edition PDAs are not likely to ship in massive volumes, certainly not by the standards of mobile handsets, but they are highly strategic. They are the first of what could be an important class of high-capability wireless devices. Operators are hoping that these devices will boost take-up of GPRS wireless data services, which has thus far been very disappointing - partly because GPRS phones don't really do very much. And GPRS is of course an important precursor to 3G - so getting good GPRS services out early will be essential if the mobile operators are ever going to recoup the costs of their billion-pound licenses.