Ahead of its final Consumer Electronics Show (CES) keynote, Microsoft confirmedmy exclusive report from late December stating that AT&T Wireless would be the first carrier to offer 4G/LTE-based Windows Phones. HTC showed off its first LTE-based Windows Phone, the Titan II, while Nokia talked up its LTE plans on AT&T without discussing specific phone versions.
Based on the internal documentation I've viewed, the Titan II was previously codenamed Radiant. It features a large 4.7-inch display (800 x 480 as with all Windows Phones), a 16 megapixel camera (with 720p video) with dual LED flash, LTE compatibility, and a 1.5GHz Snapdragon processor. While an exact release date is unclear, it will happen sometime this quarter. And that's awfully close to the release of the original Titan, which debuted on AT&T in November, just two months ago.
Nokia, meanwhile, was coy, since that company has a press conference coming up later on Monday. CEO Stephen Elop said, however, that AT&T would be its first LTE partner at launch this quarter, and would have more to say about specific devices later. But there's no need to wait: As I reported previously, Nokia will release a device code-named ACE and almost certainly called the Lumia 900 on March 18, 2012, on AT&T. And the Nokia Lumia 710 will ship on Verizon Wireless in April 2012, after launching first this week on T-Mobile.
As for the future, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer hinted that Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 would share some technologies, and that this sharing would get only stronger over time. He said that the current version of Windows Phone already shares the same Metro-style UI and user experience. But he fell short of admitting that Windows Phone 8 would be based on Windows 8, as widely rumored.
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