I've just caught some previews of Microsoft's latest mobile phone platform, the Windows Phone 7 Series, which looks really great.

I've been a user of Microsoft mobile devices since the Pocket PC days. The main advantage in having one was to sync my Outlook contacts and calendar to my phone so that I wasn't maintaining two separate copies. That was great, but in all other respects, the user experience was very disappointing and it was hard not to feel that Microsoft had missed the boat and would forever be playing catch-up to the other manufacturers.

Things have improved with the advent of Windows Mobile 6.5. Manufacturers like HTC have done a great job of trying to make the phones look less "Windows"-y, particularly with phones like the HTC HD2. However, underneath the slick touchscreen interface, it is still Windows and in comparison to the iPhone, it's just not in the same league. The iPhone has become the de-facto standard now.

This new version of Windows Mobile looks like it has been completely re-designed from the ground up and could seriously rival the iPhone and its ilk. If this takes off, Microsoft are definitely back in the game, in my view.

See what you think. Check out the preview videos on YouTube and also on the dedicated site at http://www.windowsmobile7series.com.