We already told you about the upcoming software upgrades Microsoft plans this year for their WP7 platform. Among the key features expected are:

• Copy/Paste in the first update expected in March
• Multitasking
• IE9 Mobile with HTMLS
• Twitter integration to the People hub
• Kinect integration

It was surprising of Microsoft to not implementing copy/paste in the first release and there have been a few explanations given but bowing to pressure, they decided to push copy/paste as part of the first update to Windows Phone 7. Here’s a demo of the copy/paste feature:

In many ways, Microsoft took two steps back with WP7 by not implementing copy/paste & multitasking which are both part of Windows Mobile but with time Microsoft plans to fill in these gaps. At MWC 2011, Microsoft demonstrated their multitasking implementation in WP7. Here’s a short demo (view around 2:50):

Similar to the cards in WebOS, press and hold action on the back button will launch the multitasking UI allowing you to browse through the apps running in the background. Audio applications will be able to continue playing in the background as part of multitasking.

With their desktop version of Internet Explorer finally being standard compliant to a large extent and fast to use, Microsoft will be bringing IE9 with HTML5 to Windows Phone 7 too. At MWC 2011, Microsoft showed a performance demo of IE9 Mobile:

Microsoft had earlier demonstrated the ability to continue playing a games across the PC, Xbox and WP7. At MWC 2011, Microsoft showed Kinect, Xbox LIVE and WP7 integration adding a new dimension to multiplayer gaming. The video demo shows two users throwing balls using their WP7 devices while the third player is defending himself using the Kinect & Xbox. Video:

The People hub that allows you to integrate your contacts with their Windows Live and Facebook profiles to fetch updates and contact details will add twitter as well. Microsoft posted a screenshot showing twitter updates of an individual along with Facebook and Windows Live updates:

If Microsoft is able to push out these updates by year end, Microsoft should have a mobile platform with all features one would expect in a modern OS.

Even before the Microsoft event in MWC (Mobile World Congress) kick-started, the company released the details about the upcoming update for WP7 OS. The new update will bring introduce several much needed features to the WP7 OS including Twitter integration, third party apps multi-tasking support, performance improvements, reduce app/game load times and copy-and-paste. Microsoft did not mention much about the multi-tasking support but hopefully it will be supported by all third party apps. The multi-tasking switcher UI will be similar to Palm’s webOS Cards’ implementation. The new update will also bring in IE9 web-browser which will dramatically improve the web browsing performance on the device. The web browser will be hardware accelerated which is definitely good news! The popular social network Twitter will also be integrated into the People Hub so that WP7 users can get the Twitter updates of their friends directly. Here is the official change-log according to Microsoft’s press release :

• Copy and paste functionality via first major update, coming in the next month
• Twitter integration directly into the People Hub in 2011
• Support for Office documents in the cloud in 2011
• Dramatically enhanced Web browser experience based on IE9 in 2011
• A new wave of multitasking applications in 2011

The update will also bring support for CDMA handsets on WP7 OS. The update is expected to be out by early March.

EDIT: The above features will be added to WP7 OS with multiple updates throughout 2011. The “early March” update will bring with it copy and paste functionality and performance improvements.