Windows Phone 7 is on the horizon, nearly. Only 8 months until it makes it way into the hand of consumers.

Microsoft really had to pull it’s socks up at the Mobile Worlds Congress this year. And they certainly did, the new mobile platform has a very intuitive interface and integrated application set.

The home screen for Windows?Phone 7 presents a number of slickley?animated tiles that look vaguely familiar, Sony Erricson X1? These tiles have the capability to be linked to thing like Facebook accounts. the tiles display photographs or text info. Some what like a web widget. They can? also be configured for web page and application shortcuts.

Behind these tiles sit “hubs”, a series of touch screen controled sliding walls. These hubs accumilate infomation such as contacts or music, from your music or networking sites. There are also hubs for Office and games.

The integrated software for the Music hub is called Zune, and all handsets with the Windows Phone 7 platform will be Zune compatible. Xbox live also has an integration. And a promise has been made by Microsoft that third parties will be able to get involved in the hubs. Operators and manufacturers will not be able to change the home screen or hubs. So the user interface and functionality?will always be consistent. But will be able to add their own hubs and tiles.

There will be three hardware buttons within the platform, home, search and back. There is also a multi touch capacitive screen. The browser is new and based on Internet explorer. No Adobe Flash for the launch, but no objection by MS for the platforms enablement.

Can Microsoft pull another one out of the bag after the success of Windows 7.