Charlie Kindel (not Amazon Kindle) of Microsoft played with his Windows Phone 7 prototype yesterday, and while the user interface looks fancy, there is not anything terribly new or exciting.

Being able to sync with Xbox Live is cool. Having slightly “different” home screen UI from Android and iPhone OS 3 is nifty, but what else? Granted, WP7 is not finished yet, but so far, it barely raises an eyebrow. In fact, the “nifty” and unique UI is somewhat cluttered and confusing with those pretentious and enormous icons. Microsoft cannot lay claim to better hardware either because the same manufacturers (LG and HTC) making WP7 phones will also be concentrating their efforts on Android too. Microsoft’s strict WP7 hardware guidelines mean higher quality specs, but also fewer choices. By the time that a WP7 phone launches, Android buyers will have literally over several dozen models of every size and price range to pick from.

Basically, Microsoft’s statement with Windows Phone 7 is, “Hey, look at us; we can do what Android and iPhone OS 3 already do!”