Microsoft has had an operating system (OS) in cell phones for many years. But its more recent editions have not been widely hailed or accepted. In fact, there is evidence that vendors are dropping Windows Mobile OSs in favor of Android and other new platforms. Don’t knock Microsoft out of the running just yet, though. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Microsoft announced its Windows Phone 7 OS. And it appears to be a knockout.

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Needing something new and better to compete with Apple’s iPhone, Android phones, and the likes of Palm’s WebOS, Microsoft achieved the next stage of handset OSs. Designed for the touchscreen, Windows Phone 7 uses a cool-looking user interface (UI) with multiple “live tiles” that navigate you to the desired function. Its six hubs—people, pictures, games, music + video, marketplace, and office—bring together related content from multiple sources into a single view to simplify common tasks. Microsoft promises that Phone 7 will deliver a different kind of mobile experience.

Key features include music, games, and search functions. For music and video, Microsoft adds the full-blown Zune music player with video and an FM radio. It also plays music videos, which I love. For games, Microsoft knocks us out again with Xbox Live games capability. Who else has that? Microsoft further adds a Bing search button that gets you to search from almost any other application you happen to be using on the phone. I like that too.

Microsoft has already lined up a batch of carriers and phone manufacturers. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon have already signed up in the U.S. We also can eventually expect phones from Dell, Garmin-Asus, HTC, HP, LG Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Toshiba, and Qualcomm. Look for some of these phones before Christmas this year.

So, the mobile OS battle continues. How many OSs can one industry support anyway? Besides OS X for Apple’s iPhone, we have RIM’s system, Google’s Android, Palm’s WinOS, Linux in multiple flavors like LiMo, Nokia’s world-leading Symbian, and Samsung’s bada. Did I leave any out? Nokia and Intel are merging their Maemo and Moblin platforms to create something called MeeGo. It’s designed for media smart phones as well as a slew of other devices like netbooks, tablet PCs, pocket TVs, and in-vehicle devices. This new platform will undoubtedly compete.

I used an early version of Windows Mobile 6 and really hated it. It didn’t support touchscreens, of course. It also required multiple clicks and lots of menu diving to do anything. It was maddening. But if the new Windows Phone 7 is good like the Zune, it should be a real winner. I’m happy to see that Microsoft virtually started over and abandoned the idea of making some other mobile version of older OSs. This time, it looks like Microsoft may have a winner.

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