In pictures: Microsoft unveils Windows Phone 7

The big announcement of the day at MWC is Microsoft’s unveiling of Windows Phone 7 Series, its smartphone operating system. With market share being lost to Apple, RIM and Symbian Microsoft had to do something special with its latest platform to keep up with the others, and initial reaction seems positive.

Click here to see more pictures of Windows Phone 7…

The platform, redesigned from the ground up, starts with a customisable home screen. Microsoft calls these “live tiles” – and the user can create a “live tile” of a friend and gain a readable, up-to-date view of that person’s latest pictures and posts.

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Content on Windows Phone 7 Series is displayed through a series of “hubs”. The People hub, shown above, lets the user see all relevant content associated with a contact, including live feeds from social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, and photos. Users can also update Twitter and Windows Live from here.

The Picture hub can sync photos from the phone, the PC and online albums into one view.

The Office hub provides access to Microsoft Office Mobile, Microsoft Office SharePoint and Microsoft Office OneNote.

For all you gamers out there, Windows Phone 7 Series brings the Xbox Liver experience to the phone.

The Music and Video hub turns the phone into a Zune player, offering music, radio, podcasts and videos.

There’s no Flash support out of the box but Ballmer says that he’s not against the idea, so expect that to appear at some point. It’s worth noting of course that Apple still isn’t allowing Flash on the iPhone.

Strangely, devices running Windows Phone 7 will not be available until the end of year. Remember when Nokia announced the N97 to a great reception? By the time it was actually released months later it had been gazumped by the iPhone. With Apple expected to update its device again during the summer, and Google’s Nexus One now on the market, it’s possible that Windows Phone 7 will suffer the same fate.