T-Mobile USA entered the mobile email fray late Thursday, unveiling its exclusive “Dash” Windows Mobile 5.0 smartphone.

The Dash device – also known as the Excalibur and manufactured by Taiwan’s High Tech Computer – looks very much like it is aimed straight for the BlackBerry/Motorola Q/Nokia E61 market. Whilst in Europe, SMS is the messaging choice of the mobile user, US operators who missed the SMS boat are preparing themselves for a boom in mobile email.

Based on Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 with Direct Push, the handset also has a full QWERTY keyboard, wifi and a 1.3 megapixel camera.

The T-Mobile Dash also makes use of T-Mobile’s new myFaves service which features an addition to the user interface with five slots for the subscribers most popular contacts. When coupled with a myFaves tariff, the subscriber can make unlimited nationwide calls to those five numbers.