Windows Phone 7 is go

As many speculated before the Mobile World Congress, Microsoft has used the event to demonstrate the next version of its mobile operating system: Windows Phone 7.

As expected, the interface has moved away from its rather staid past, becoming a much funkier and more consumer friendly affair based on Microsoft’s Zune.

It’s designed around a system of what Microsoft calls “live tiles”, which are basically fancy icons that update themselves with information in real-time.

So, for example, if someone posts something on your social networking profile, the relevant people tile will flash that up, notifying you.

Microsoft’s fresh interface will also make use of hubs, broad categories of related content which are kept together for convenience, such as a music hub, pictures, games and so forth.

In terms of the hardware, every Windows 7 smartphone will have three main navigation buttons: Start (which brings up the tiles), search and back (which are both pretty self-explanatory).

The demonstration also pointed out the operating system’s use of “sub-pixel positioning” on a web page – which is basically a really smooth, clear font that makes for easy reading on a small screen.

Windows Phone 7 will use a multi-touch version of Internet Explorer for a browser, unsurprisingly.

Overall, it looks impressively slick. But will it be enough to claw Microsoft back some mobile market share? It’s a possibility, certainly.