Enterprise Mobility: Nokia Lumia 900, HTC Titan II, Other Windows Phones at CES

Microsoft officials are hoping this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas can help them essentially re-launch Windows Phone, the company's smartphone platform that has attracted solid critical praise but generated relatively anemic sales. Joining the tech giant in this effort are a number of manufacturers and carriers, most notably Nokia, which abandoned its own homegrown mobile operating systems (including Symbian) in order to throw in all its chips with Windows Phone. New devices glimpsed on the show floor include Nokia's high-end Lumia 900, which will make its debut on AT&T in the coming months and features a 4.3-inch active-matrix organic LED (AMOLED) display and 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) support. Other manufacturers have also announced their own Windows Phones, including HTC, whose Titan II could appeal to customers who want a really big screen to go along with their applications, Web cruising and phone calls. "I'm really excited and upbeat about where we are," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said about Windows Phone during his opening CES keynote Jan. 9. "What we've really done with Windows Phone is have a better way." But it will take concerted effort by its manufacturing and carrier partners—and what will almost certainly be a titanic marketing budget—for Windows Phone to gain traction in 2012 against determined competitors such as Apple's iPhone and the growing family of Google Android devices.