LAS VEGAS – There's a curious thing happening in the smartphone space at this year's CES. Two Windows Phone devices – the HTC Titan II and the Nokia Lumia 900 – are the most hyped, talked-about phones at the show. Yeah, that's right: Windows Phones.

[bug id="ces2012"]This could be a good sign for Microsoft, whose critically acclaimed OS has had a hell of a time trying to make an impression with smartphone users.

“The past year has really been the whole push to build what clearly can be the strong third ecosystem in the smartphone market, with a very differentiated point of view,” said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the Nokia keynote this week. Indeed, with the launch of these new Windows Phone handsets, the push has apparently paid off.

Headlines like "Why Windows Phone is Making Waves at CES" and "How Nokia’s Lumia 900 Windows Phone Won CES Before It Even Started" are key indicators of the excitement surrounding Windows Phone's big leap into relevance in the smartphone market. Before the show even started, Nokia's next-gen Lumia handset, in particular, was on the receiving end of a tremendous amount of anticipation and praise. And for good reason.

Until now, Windows Phones were behind the times, specs-wise. Several late 2011 models skimped on things like 4G and front-facing cameras, features we've come to expect in pretty much every smartphone that debuts. Enter the Titan II and Lumia 900. They're 4G LTE phones on AT&T, and pack top-of-the-line features.

LTE 4G capability started picking up buzz at CES 2011, but this year it has become the standard that everyone wants in a data-munching smartphone. AT&T is rapidly deploying its 4G network across the U.S., playing catch-up to other carriers like Verizon, which already has a broad LTE network in place as well as a well-established lineup of compatible devices.

However, until now, 4G LTE has primarily been limited to Android devices. Now Windows Phone handsets offer a second OS option for LTE data service, along with another major selling point: consistency.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Windows Phone versus Android OS

Unlike Android – a platform that allows manufacturers and carriers more customization liberties than they know what to do with – the Windows Phone experience is designed to remain essentially identical from handset to handset.

OEMs and carriers still have the ability to add a few of their own touches to Windows Phone devices, but they're limited in the ways they can do that. And that's a good thing.

Microsoft senior product manager Greg Sullivan said manufacturers can primarily add customization at the app level, pinning apps as Live Tiles to the Window Phone homescreen. On the HTC Titan II, HTC added a Live Tile called HTC Hub, which aggregates feeds for stocks, news and weather in a single place. And for the camera, HTC extended Windows Phone's core functionality with features like panorama mode and auto fix.

Bad-ass cameras are a key trend in savvy smartphone differentiation. We're seeing lots of 8-megapixel models, a number of 12-megapixel handsets, and get this: The Titan II has a rear-facing 16-megapixel camera. This is the sort of thing we've been waiting to see from Windows Phones.

But what about Ice Cream Sandwich, otherwise known as Android 4.0? Shouldn't that be a big focus of smartphones at CES, like Android 2.3, Gingerbread, was last year?

"I think the excitement around ICS is really for developers to be able to craft apps that go seamlessly across phone and tablet," Forrester analyst Charles Golvin says.

The Samsung Galaxy Note (which is arguably a tablet, given its size) and the Sony Xperia S and Arc are notable Android announcements, but reek with a bit of, well, "we've seen this story before." We've been seeing Android smartphones with big, beautiful screens, high-power multi-core processors, and impressive cameras since last year. They're all nice, yes. But they don't scream innovation.

In most ways, Windows Phone is playing catch up. But for those of us who deal with smartphone news and technology on a daily basis, it's exciting to see a new player enter the game in earnest. A major reason for that excitement is Microsoft's and Nokia's Windows Phone product synergy.

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Microsoft and Nokia's partnership

Nokia makes great phones. Microsoft has developed a great mobile OS. After announcing a partnership in early 2011, we're finally getting to see the fruits of this collaboration.

"There's been a great amount of pent-up demand to see the results of this relationship," Sullivan says.

Given Microsoft's tight partnership with Nokia, I asked Sullivan if Nokia phones would end up being the "truest" Windows Phone devices – similar to how Google's Nexus smartphones are the purest implementations of the Android OS.

"Because of our different approach, I think every Windows phone is going to be the flagship," Sullivan says. "It's true the Nokia relationship is unique, so we'll see some great collaboration, but we have great collaboration with other partners as well."

The Nokia Lumia 710 and 800 are well-made products that run Windows Phone OS swimmingly. But the 800 isn't available yet in the U.S. (indeed, at the Microsoft keynote, the Lumia 800 was announced for Canada but not U.S. markets), and the 710 just went on sale to the public today.

By my count, the Nokia Lumia 900 is slightly outshining the HTC Titan II at CES, but only by just a bit. But the two phones do appear to back up Sullivan's "I love all my children equally" affirmation: Each handset appears to stand alone as a potentially stellar product.

An F-22 Raptor flies over Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, Sept. 21, after a four month stand-down. Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz recently approved an implementation plan developed by Air Combat Command officials that will allow the F-22 to resume flight operations. The commander of ACC directed a stand-down of the fleet May 3 as a safety precaution, following 12 separate reported incidents where pilots experienced hypoxia-like symptoms. (US Air Force photo/Senior Airman Cynthia Spalding) SrA Cynthia Spalding

The road ahead

Critics may be smitten, but Microsoft still has work ahead in winning the hearts of consumers.

Forrester's Golvin says there are four main things Microsoft needs to tackle to ensure that Windows Phone builds momentum in 2012: significant investments in quality marketing efforts; winning "flagship" positioning with carriers for several devices over the course of the year; offering a range of devices on each carrier network; and convincing salespeople that Windows Phone is just as good as iOS and Android.

It looks like Nokia, at least, plans to instigate a heavy marketing campaign to make sure the 900 gets time in the spotlight.

CES has never been a completely accurate indicator of what's going to succeed in the year to come. What journalists and bloggers fawn over, consumers may end up shunning in favor of something else.

However, with smartphones in recent years, the "most hyped-about" phones have generally ended up faring well with mobile phone buyers. And if that's any indication, Windows Phone stands a good chance of fulfilling our expectations.