By all accounts, Microsoft is set to unveil it's next-generation mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7 Series (say that 10 times fast!) at Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona today, and WMExperts will be live-blogging the whole thing.

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Rumors about Windows Mobile 7, or Seven as our sibling site WMExperts is calling it, are near-iTablet level over on that side of the smartphone space. If you read my Windows Phone (based on 6.5) review, you know I had only questions and no answers for Microsoft when it came to what they could do to become competitive in the increasingly important consumer space.

Well, Mal over at WMExperts has put together a ton of whispers, mixed it with keen insights, and unleashed a Windows Mobile 7: What we expect and what we are hearing article of epic proportions. Here are some highlights, but you need to go read the whole thing:

• Two versions, stripped-down Business and pimped-out Media.
• Business Edition will be more like current WM, skin-able by HTC Sense UI and the like, and is more complete right now.
• Media Edition (yes, ME is back, baby!) will be the closest thing possible to a ZunePhone without being a ZunePhone, with maximum Microsoft Experience, but it's not yet as far along.
• Office 2010 super-integration
• Silverlight (Microsoft's inversion of Flash), Mediaroom (Microsoft's TV center), Xbox Live (possibly gaming!), Facebook and Twitter, and Zune Music integration.
• New "Orion" platform to do GPS faster and better.
• 720p (!!) 1280-720 resolution screen on LG "Apollo" handset.
• Dieter and Phil should get the first glimpses for us at Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona next month.

Again, go read the full article and then hurry back an let us know if you think this is finally Microsoft getting Xbox 360 and ZuneHD serious with Windows Mobile/Windows Phone, and if it's enough to make them competitive -- or more than competitive -- with the iPhone in 2010.

So the Zune HD is out, Windows Mobile 6.5 is starting to come out, Windows Mobile 7 will come out end of next year, and all of this relates to project Pink and new rumors of device code-names Pure and Turtle, and a Surface-related tablet just how exactly?

Sigh. Microsoft is like that cousin that we just know could be great but somehow keeps getting turned around, lost, and otherwise just not-quite delivering on it's amazing potential. Imagine if they had one division, making one platform, and all that effort and integration went into delivering a killer XboxPhone in time for the holidays this year? And don't hate on us for saying that, even our sibling site WMExperts is pounding the integration drum.

Back in the real world, however, Microsoft is said to be using a 2-prong strategy, Windows Mobile 6.5 now to compete with Android, and Windows Mobile 7 next year to compete with the iPhone (which, if Apple keeps up with their own roadmap, will be on its 4th hardware revision and running iPhone OS 4.0 -- a moving target indeed).

The Zune HD meanwhile is positioned somewhere between the original and current iPod touch.

Microsoft is also rumored to be working on a tablet, based on their big-@$$ Surface table, to market against Apple's still unannounced iTablet/iPad. Surface uses infrared camera technology, and required a huge basin to house all that hardware, so no doubt this will be Surface in name only (because who wants a 4 foot thick tablet, right?)

And on top of that, Microsoft is still working on Project Pink, which is a giant unknown, except it might be using Danger (makers of the Sidekick, bought out by Microsoft), and might be a Microsoft phone (though Microsoft swears they aren't making a phone -- just like Steve Jobs said no one wanted video on an iPod).

Pure and Turtle would then be these Danger-developed, Sidekick-like handsets running Windows Mobile 7, with on-board Zune software to handle the media layer?

Yeah, we don't know either. Would that -- Sidekick hardware running WinMo7 and Zune HD interface -- be competitive with an 4th gen iPhone running iPhone 4.0?

We're only a year away from knowing....

[Via WMExperts via 9to5mac]

Our sibling site, WMExpert's tells us about all the speculation surrounding code-name "pink", which may have to do with some manner of next generation Windows Mobile stuffs. (We've heard whispers of "rouge" as well, so we're guessing there're some real "Lady Marmalade" skunkworks going on).

What thinks noted Windows pundit Paul Thurrott, who has made a side career absolutely annihilating Windows Mobile as of late? As much as he loves Vista and Windows 7 and everything else Microsoft (Internet Explorer rightfully excluded), and as much as he bashes and baits all things Apple, iPhone user Thurrott has been saving his most impassioned rants of late for Windows Mobile. The latest?

Yep. [News that Windows Mobile 7 may not hit the market until 2010] is bad. Microsoft is working on a number of things before that major update, Windows Mobile 7. These include a new version of the WM version of IE, called Internet Explorer 6, and a new Windows Mobile platform called Zune Mobile that includes Zune functionality. But it’s not happening quickly enough.

Really? 3+ years after Steve Jobs hit the stage at Macworld 2008 and pulled the original iPhone from his pocket isn't quickly enough? That's how long it takes to even begin a response? "Pink" aside, is there no sense of urgency in Redmond? No desire to step up their game in the face of the iPhone walking in, stealing their mind share, and smacking around their market share?

I wanted to at least mention one thing I found vaguely alarming. When asked about the success of the iPhone and how that impacts Windows Mobile, I was told that the iPhone “validated” Microsoft’s approach. That’s some weird combination of revisionism, wishful thinking and, perhaps, delusion.

Apparently not.