Microsoft, the technology company, hopes to gain ground in the mobile market with Windows Phone 7 as it courts 2700 IT professionals and software developers in the Tech.Ed event on the Gold Coast.

Telstra, the telecommunications company, has announced the launch of a free content platform designed especially for the new operating system. Called the Telstra One Hub, the application will provide information such as live breaking news, sports and weather without even opening a Web page. The platform will be bundled in with Telstra's unmetered content, which means that customers on the carrier's network will continue to access its related services free of charge.

The Telstra One Hub may be activated from the home screens of new Windows Phone 7 handsets. The carrier says that it is working on providing breaking news and other content directly to the home screen without the need for users to tap the hub's icon. Telstra will get its content from BigPond.

The first handsets based on Windows Phone 7 are expected to be launched in Australia by October. David Powell, general manager of device users interface for Telstra, said that his company was pleased with the performance of the platform and that they are excited about what it will offer consumers.

"It's really compelling. You'll be literally playing with the phone and things will be happening," Powell said.

Microsoft has lost ground in the consumer market and among enterprise customers due to the popularity of Apple's iPhones and smartphones based on the Google Android. The company hopes that it can compete with its new operating system.

Richard Fink, director of mobility products for Telstra, said that the new handsets based on Windows Phone 7 would give users more choices.

"I think it will compete very well, it's strong. We want everyone to be strong: Microsoft, Apple, RIM and Android. We think Microsoft is back in the game," said Fink.

Fairfax, publisher of this website, also showcased its first WP7 app for the real estate site Domain. It has been redesigned as a native application for the phone, rather than a cut-down version of the website. Like the Domain iPhone app, it was reconfigured to take advantage of the operating system's touch, pinch and two-way swipe capabilities.

David Glover of Microsoft declined to comment when asked how many apps would be available when the system is launched, saying that the company was striving for quality not quantity.

"I was trying to track what people were doing in apps for WP7 but I gave up maintaining a list a month ago, there's so much out there. We've had 300,000 developer tool downloads worldwide - it's huge. It's fantastic to see the momentum," said Glover.

Glover adds that developers would have to design apps that allows for full-versions to be "unlocked" from the free-trial or lite versions. This would prevent two separate apps from co-existing in the Windows Marketplace.

The company announces that when the platform is launched it will not allow the release of adult content apps, saying that it wants to keep an eye on the standard and security of content.

"Our approval process is somewhere in the middle. The focus is on quality and because we're doing it through Silverlight it has a security boundary so the apps won't be able to do anything bad to your phone like read your contacts. We're aiming at a transparent (approval) process," said Peter Torr, the program manager for Windows Phone 7.