The much-awaited HD2 smartphone availability in the US was Tuesday announced by HTC and T-Mobile wireless carrier; who also revealed that, at present, there were no specific plans to include the forthcoming Microsoft Windows Phone 7 OS on the handset, which will hit the US markets March 24.

The 4.3-inch touchscreen HD2, which was initially announced in Europe in October last year, runs the Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional OS; which, as per a recent Microsoft confirmation will not be upgraded to Windows Phone 7.

Since Microsoft has also said that handsets based on Windows Phone 7 OS will hit markets only by late 2010, T-Mobile spokesman Jon Eliav said that there was no point waiting for the new OS to release the HD2 in the US.

Further noting that HTC has refrained from providing any details about when or whether HD2 smartphones will carry the Windows Phone 7 OS, Eliav said: “We don't know when the first Windows 7 Phone OS device is coming out.”

Meanwhile, the key features of the HD2 include Qualcomm’s 1GHz processor; 5-megapixel camera; 576MB of memory; 3G; GPS; Wi-Fi; and Bluetooth 2.1; and MicroSD card slot for expandable storage.

The HD2 smartphone – for which HTC and T-Mobile have tied up with sevral content providers for bringing multimedia to the device - will cost US$449 without a contract; and $199 with a T-Mobile contract.