Microsoft has unveiled its next generation mobile OS, dubbed Windows Phone 7.

The new OS features a rather interesting UI, centered around what Microsoft calls hubs. Hubs integrate multiple individual applications into groups, thus offering faster access to each one of them.

Windows Phone 7 has six hubs. The People hub includes a contact list, social networking applications and Windows Live. In the Picture hub, users can easily organize their photos and access social networking sites to post them. The Games hub features Xbox Live support, including some games and Spotlight feed. Through the Marketplace hub users can access Microsoft's app store.

The most important hubs are, however, Office and Music and Video. Office includes apps such as Office (who would have guessed), OneNote, SharePoiint Workspace and Outlook, while the Music and Video hub turns the phone into a Zune player. It offers content synchronization with the user's PS, FM radio and online music services.

While some might argue that the new OS does not come close to the iPhone, it is a vast improvement over Microsoft's previous mobile solutions. Redmond claims the first Windows Phone 7 products should appear in late 2010. Add some Tegra into the mix and we might be looking at a rather appealing mobile platform.

You can check out a short YouTube clip .