Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) next mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, will enable users to locate their phones if they accidentally lose them--to note just one example--in a bar. Users will be able to go to a free website that will help them pinpoint the device on a map, lock it down and erase its contents. The service is said to be similar to a paid offering from Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL).  

Microsoft unveiled a host of new features for the upcoming mobile platform--including the Find My Phone service--most of which appear to be taking a direct hit at rival offerings from Apple and Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). Windows Phone 7 customers will have access to a free website, called Windows Phone Live, that will allow them to synchronize their contacts and automatically post photos. 

Overall, the new features highlight the upcoming operating system's cloud-based services for managing content via the web. It is a strategy that rivals, especially Google, are pursuing aggressively.  

"It's clear the software giant is shooting at the cloud in order to target a major weakness of Apple and a major strength of Google. Microsoft is offering consumer-oriented cloud services that Apple lacks, while providing enterprise features, such as remote wiping or locating a missing phone, that are not built in to Android," writes Brian X. Chen in a post at Wired.

While Windows Phone 7 is a serious departure from the current version of the operating system, it is not radically different from Apple's approach to the mobile operating system, writes Kevin C. Tofel in a post at GigaOm. The integration that Windows Phone 7 brings to the cloud and other services is probably the biggest difference, he writes.

"[A]fter a few years of watching the success of others, Microsoft is ready to leverage the ecosystem behind the phone," Tofel writes. "This holiday season will begin to prove if consumers and enterprise users want Microsoft's full ecosystem in the palm of their hands."

For more:
- see this post about Windows Phone 7 on the Microsoft blog
- see Brian X. Chen's article at Wired
- see Kevin C. Tofel's post at GigaOm

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