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Several sources report Windows Mobile 7 likely won't see the light of day until the end of 2009, about six months after we last heard it was supposed to ship. The next edition Microsoft's mobile-device operating system is said to be major step forward over Windows Mobile 6.1, the most recent version of the smartphone platform.

Earlier this year, a document a supposed internal Microsoft revealed a number of details about the Windows Mobile 7 under its codename, Photon. The document, if real, was chock full of details and screen shots, giving us the best view of what's now being called Windows Mobile 7 (formally codenamed Photon) yet—particularly in the area of the user interface, which, surprise surprise, heavily emphasizes more advanced touch input (a la the iPhone) than included with previous versions of Windows Mobile

So, in addition to accepting standard stylus input, Windows Mobile 7 accepts multi-touch (more than one finger at a time) and gesture—swipes and flicks of the finger to quickly move through lists, for example—input, both concepts introduced to the smartphone world by Apple with the iPhone.

In addition to touch, Microsoft appears to have plans to allow users to control and manage their Windows Mobile device through shakes and rotation as well: The strength, direction and number of shakes may determine how a smartphone responds.

What happens would depend on the context in which these jiggles take place. For example, shaking a device left to right while a song is playing would jump you to the next track. Or, perhaps, you may be able to 'toss' a file from your device to another by performing a simple tossing motion while holding your device.

In the rotation department, turning a device in a particular direction and at a certain speed could unlock it, for instance. With the iPhone, photos and the Safari Web browser switch to landscape mode when the smartphone itself is rotated in that direction.

Rather than implementing an accelerometer, which the iPhone uses, the Microsoft document cites the concept of using a smartphone's camera as a motion sensor to manage these control functions. This would make implementing these technologies cheaper for manufacturers, as they wouldn't need to add the extra hardware required by an accelerometer. And, perhaps more importantly, it would allow currently available Windows Mobile devices to be upgraded to version 7 without sacrificing the added motion-sensitive functionality.

The interface described in the document jibes with the "improved user interface for mobile devices" concepts outlined in a patent filing from late last year. As we saw then, Windows Mobile 7 is apparently very different from what Microsoft offers today for PDAs and smartphones—focusing more on using groups or lists to organize data, including such things as tasks and applications.

Perhaps with Windows Mobile 7 we may finally see the long-anticipated unification of the Smartphone (now called Standard under Windows Mobile 6.1) and Pocket PC (now known as Classic for PDAs and Professional for smartphones) versions of Windows Mobile.