The Mobile World Congress started this week in Barcelona, Spain, and announcements have been plentiful and exciting. One of the most anticipated players this year, Microsoft, announced an entirely new mobile operating system: Windows Phone 7 Series.

Microsoft has been a major player in mobile operating systems for many years, but has been declining recently despite their recent release of Windows Mobile® 6.5, which only received mediocre reviews. However Microsoft has all but abandoned its previous model and completely redesigned its new OS to provide a much better user experience and to compete with the iPhone™ and Android™ operating systems.

"In a crowded market filled with phones that look the same and do the same things, I challenged the team to deliver a different kind of mobile experience," said Steve Ballmer, CEO at Microsoft. "Windows Phone 7 Series marks a turning point toward phones that truly reflect the speed of people’s lives and their need to connect to other people and all kinds of seamless experiences."

What is so different about Windows Phone 7 Series? First, users will notice that the homepage is a completely new approach to phone interfaces. Microsoft’s new approach actually treats it as a mobile device, instead of mini desktop computer. Instead of the traditional 4x4 list of icons, Microsoft has replaced them with large, crisp sections that engage users and provide real time information without having to open and close each application.

Windows Phone 7 Series is also formatted around a "hub system," which aggregates data into six hubs that emphasize specific themes. The hubs are People, Pictures, Games, Music + Video, Marketplace, and Office.

Each hub is designed to integrate the Web, applications and services into a single area. For example, the People hub compiles information from your contacts, social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and allows you to easily post updates or respond to people without the need to open and navigate through a series of pages or applications.

Microsoft also offers the Office hub which is probably one of the most exciting features of the new OS. This allows coordination between Office applications, OneNote®, and the SharePoint® workspace. It also incorporates the power of Outlook® Mobile, which allows users to access their Outlook email while out of the office.

Also included is the Games hub which allows mobile access into XBOX LIVE®, and lets users access the XBOX LIVE community, which has over 23 million users, and check up on what is happening in the gaming world. This is separate from the Marketplace hub, which is where users can go to download or launch custom apps, similar to the Apple® iPhone App Store.

Little has been said about the software development kit and about custom application development for Windows Phone 7 Series, however Microsoft did say that they will disclose more information and development details next month in Las Vegas at Microsoft’s Mix conference. However, we do know that Microsoft will have their own app store, and that they will support custom application development.

At Mix, we also expect to find out if Microsoft will support Silverlight®, Adobe Flash® and Adobe Air®, and whether apps developed for Windows Mobile 6.5 will be compatible with the new version.

Flash and Silverlight capabilities would make application development much more cost effective since they would be compatible with any other device that can run Flash or Silverlight. Also, many Web sites use Flash or Silverlight and are currently inaccessible on mobile phones. By increasing Silverlight and Flash support, custom application development becomes much more practical for those that are interested.

This means that for each app developed for mobile Flash or Silverlight would be theoretically be available on all Flash or Silverlight compatible devices, even if they use different operating systems. This prevents the need to develop multiple versions of the same application in order to reach people on multiple platforms. However, Silverlight and Flash compatibility is not limited to only Windows Mobile 7 Series phones, as other platforms, such as Android, are expected to get it this year as well.

Overall, we at Amadeus Consulting are very excited about the Windows Phone 7 Series OS. We have been working on Microsoft products since we started in 1994, and not only are we a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, but we enjoy Microsoft Partner Competencies in Mobility Solutions and have a long history developing for Microsoft mobile products. Or as our developers would put it, we’re just anxious to get our hands on the new system, take it apart and see how it works, and then put it all back together again to begin helping our customers develop custom applications for the Windows® mobile platform.