Despite the new mobile OS being heralded as a return to form for Microsoft, the main features of WinPhone 7 aren’t the ones I’m most excited about. Instead, there’s a whole clutch of features that I think are going to be incredibly useful for anyone who uses their phone for social networking. The big one is the way that the phone integrates all your contacts from various networks into one place. While it’s great to see Facebook and Windows Live statuses sitting side by side, I’m hoping to see plugins for Twitter and maybe LinkedIn appear on here as well. I’m also hoping that it’ll play nice with Google’s Mail, Contacts and Calendar push services, although these will probably go through an Exchange-style interface.

The People hub: OS-level social network integration

The great thing for me here is that I can unlock the phone and see what’s going on – I don’t have to treat each service separately by going into it’s individual app. Since I started heavily using Twitter, I’ve almost abandoned Facebook and the huge number of contacts I have there. I’m hoping that centralised services like this will help to bring me back the other way and reconnect with my Facebook friends. More than this though, I’m hoping that it’ll allow for some great cross-pollination of ideas. Being able to forward posts from one service to another would be incredibly useful.

The other great thing for me is the integration of XBox Live. It finally means that the people I hook up with for videogaming don’t get treated as a separate entity but instead get pulled in to my other social networks. The inclusion of multiplayer gaming on the handset is great news as well – I think that turn based games such as Chess, Poker and even Civilization will work well on the platform. Although gaming has taken off in a big way on the iPhone, it still remains very much a single player affair. By introducing social gaming to the platform’s core, more multiplayer titles should start to emerge.

The Game hub: Finally, XBox Live integration

The way that WinPhone 7 draws social networks together and integrates them is a big plus. Microsoft aren’t the only people who have spotted this trend – Google recently launched their Buzz service in order to achieve much the same thing. The key difference though is in the level of integration – Microsoft are unifying the networks together, but not adding anything further on top of it. Google on the other hand are encapsulating all merged content with a Buzz wrapper, allowing comments and ratings to be added on almost anything regardless of where it came from. The key challenge for Google will be to mimic the level of integration into Android in a way that doesn’t upset an established userbase – not a straightforward challenge at all. There’s also a groundswell of opinion that goes against

I’m looking forward to getting some hands-on time with the Windows Phone when it comes out later this year. While it’s unlikely to be an iPhone killer, I think that having an alternative way of doing things and a different product in the market can only be a good thing. I think it will encourage more people to take the smartphone plunge, sitting alongside the iPhone and Android as a viable option. That said, the next smartphone battle isn’t going to be for users. With several directly competing platforms each competing for a developer’s attention, getting them on board and developing apps for one system in favour of another is going to be challenging.

Windows Media Center: Possibly the cleanest Microsoft UI

Microsoft hasn’t always been wedded to the idea of menus that either drop down or scroll up. Back in 2005 they released Windows Media Center, an application that ran on top of Windows XP. WMC was intended for use as a home entertainment hub, with an iTunes style music interface and video capture amongst it’s features. The original release never really caught on in the UK, with capability being replaced by either the Sky or Virgin Media set top boxes, or by videogame consoles like the XBox.

The interface itself was specifically designed for use on a large widescreen TV and would be controlled by a remote. Options were bright and bold, with information sliding into view. In terms of control, it worked as an opposite to regular version of Windows: slick, clean and uncluttered. It still exists today, available in both Windows Vista and as an improved and cleaner version in Windows 7.

Zune HD: Notice something familiar?

It’s clear that Microsoft have taken cues from Media Center and incorporated them into other products. The Zune HD, a portable media player only available in the US, has all the hallmarks of a device styled by the same team. Despite being the same size as an iPod Touch, the unique style and interface make it unique and desirable. Unfortunately the device is unlikely to hit European shores, as the content the supports many of the functions isn’t available outside of North America. That said, it does seem to indicate that Microsoft is willing to develop embedded operating systems that feel completely different to the standard Windows Mobile interface we’ve been used to.

With both these things in place, you can’t help but feel it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch for Microsoft to develop a superb touch-based tablet interface, either by expanding on the Zune HD or the Media Center technology they already have. There are even hints on the direction they’ll move in, with Seesmic Look being a strong example of what an MS tablet based app would feel like. Add to that the rumours that Microsoft will be announcing a Zune Phone later this month and it begins to feel like potential is building up.

My concern out of all of this is the sporadic nature with which development has happened. It’s taken five years to go from a large screen interface to a personal media player. Will it take the same time again to produce a high quality interface, leaving Apple to clean up in the tablet market? Will Microsoft surprise us with a restyled interface to sit inside the HP Slate? Will the stylus finally make it to the dustbin of history? Chanses are, 2010 will hold all the answers.