Hi MJ,
You seem to be overlooking what i think is the most newsworthy thing here: "a common HTML5/XAML experience". I take that to mean that the Win8 dev platform (i.e. winRT) id coming to the phone and if that's true that is *huge* news, much bigger than the same kernel. I don't doubt that pretty soon users will be able to buy apps that run on PCs, tablets and phones, hopefully that's coming in Apollo. As i said...huge.
JT
There was a surprise guest at the AT&T Developer Summit on January 9: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer.
Ballmer told attendees that Microsoft and partners would be unveiling news about new LTE Windows Phones throughout the day.
Ballmer also noted that developers should expect Microsoft to continue to “move in the direction of sharing more and more technologies” between Windows Phone and Windows. Windows 8 and Windows Phone 7.5 already share the same Metro-style interface, the same HTML5 Internet Explorer browser, integration with Windows Live and Azure, and a common HTML5/XAML experience, Ballmer said. He stopped short of saying anything about the rumors that Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 will include the same core kernel elements.
One of the new AT&T Windows Phones already is out of the bag, the 4.7-inch HTC Titan II which is due out on AT&T “in the coming months.” It has a 16 megapixel camera on the back and a 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera, as well.
Microsoft BFF Nokia still has yet to take the wraps off its first LTE phone for the U.S. market: The Nokia Lumia 900, codenamed Ace. Nokia still will be holding its own press conference at 3 p.m. PT today at CES where this is likely to happen.
Update: As expected, Nokia announced the Nokia Lumia 900, which has a front-facing camera, a 4.3-inch AMOLED screen and a better camera than on the Lumia 710 or 800. Here are the Lumia 900 specs from Nokia.
As revealed recently by WinSuperSite’s Paul Thurrott, the Lumia 900 is just one of a handful of LTE phones coming primarily to AT&T in the next few months. The Ace is due to be released on March 18. Verizon is expected to add the non-LTE-capable Nokia Lumia 710 to its line-up in April, according to Thurrott. (T-Mobile will be the first to offer the Lumia 710 in the U.S., starting January 11.)
AT&T also announced six new Android phones coming to its wireless network during the Developer Summit today, including the Sony Xperia Ion, which is Sony’s first LTE smartphone.
Other Ballmer bits:
- There are now 1.3 billion PCs in the world, 500 million of which are running WIndows 7 — and every WIndows 7 PC can run Windows 8.
- There have been three million downloads of WIndows 8 developer preview since Build in September.
- There are more than 50,000 Windows Phone applications, with 300 new apps being published daily.
- “Developers, developers, developers” still matter
Update: Nokia CEO Stephen Elop said Nokia will announce details later today as to how it will make its U.S. comeback, and that its first LTE phones here will be on AT&T.
They're after the iPhone market, not the Android. 
