Together with the rebrand of Windows Mobile smartphone to Windows Phone, Microsoft has offcially announced its My Phone data backup service and Windows Marketplace for application store. The new marketplace that will provide direct-to-phone mobile applications and can be accessed from both the phone and the Web. Featuring a revamped home screen, the new Windows Mobile 6.5 home screen keeps people up-to-date on important information by providing a dashboard-like experience to items such as new e-mails, texts, missed calls and calendar appointments. It also includes an improved touch-screen interface, making it easy to take action with a finger, and an updated version of the latest Internet Explorer Mobile browser.

According to live report from SlashGear

One of the areas of significant change is the Windows lock screen, which now has indicators for missed calls, messages and IMs, calendar entries and the time, together with the usual battery and signal strength icons.  The new Windows Phone homescreen shows – via small numbers next to each menu option – how many missed calls, voicemails and new emails there are, as well as access to photos and web favorites.

There’s also provision for a new hardware Start button, which all upcoming Windows Phones will have, that calls up the new honeycomb launcher.  Microsoft have added extra gesture support, including paging between inboxes with a horizontal swipe, and scrolling between photos on the launcher homescreen.  There’s also been some work in better integrating different communication methods – such as IM, SMS, and voice-chatting on Windows Live Messenger – into single panes, so you can be notified of missed calls from contacts in the threaded conversations on Windows Phones.

The free My Phone service will enable people to access, manage and back up their personal information on their device to a password-protected Web-based service. With automatic syncing and backup, users can count on their contacts, appointments, text messages and other information being kept up to date and easily restored should they lose or upgrade their phone. Consumers also will be able to automatically upload photos and video from their Windows phone directly to the My Phone service. The My Phone service is currently available in a limited invitation-only beta.

The new operating system features Windows Marketplace for Mobile, a rich and integrated marketplace for searching, browsing and purchasing mobile applications from Windows phones or from a PC by using a Windows Live ID. The Windows Mobile 6.5 are expected to be available in the second half of 2009.

Check out few Windows Mobile 6.5 screenshots below: