Microsoft Windows Phone 7 release date 21 October

As for actual features, Aaron Woodman, director of mobile communications business at Microsoft, guided delegates at the London launch event through the OS.

Once on the homescreen, users will notice the tiles, which both include updated information as well as linking through to applications.

There are a range of different "hubs" as well, which can be accessed via the touch of a tile. These organise the user's information into five different hubs: People, Pictures, Office, Music and Video, as well as Games.

Woodman said with the Office section, Microsoft "truly believes this is going to be the best phone for productivity."

Included in Office are Documents, OneNote and SharePoint, meaning mobile workers can gain remote access to the files they need.

Outlook, meanwhile, has been designed to be "quick and easy", making it simple to filter messages into categories.

As for Bing, the mobile search function provides more than just links, also including relevant information such as immediate flight times if the user is looking for a specific flight.

"It is about making that information super relevant," Woodman said.

Tom Brewster

Tom Brewster is currently an associate editor at Forbes and an award-winning journalist who covers cyber security, surveillance, and privacy. Starting his career at ITPro as a staff writer and working up to a senior staff writer role, Tom has been covering the tech industry for more than ten years and is considered one of the leading journalists in his specialism.

He is a proud alum of the University of Sheffield where he secured an undergraduate degree in English Literature before undertaking a certification from General Assembly in web development.