No Aussie Windows Phone 8 handsets for a month

Been looking forward to picking up a new Windows Phone 8 device? It looks like you'll have to wait a few weeks more.

Microsoft officially unveiled its Windows Phone 8 platform around the world over night, including an Australia announcement this morning, where the software giant shared the stage with Nokia, HTC and Samsung. Each of the OEMs showed off new handsets, but also announced that the earliest we would see new WP8 phones would be the Nokia's Lumias at the "end of November".

HTC and Samsung will follow shortly after, with representatives for both brands saying that they expect products in stores in early December.

Australia will see a decent portfolio of new products at this time, though. Nokia will launch the Lumia 920 with Telstra and the Lumia 820 with Vodafone and Optus. Similarly, the big daddy of the HTC family, the Windows Phone 8X, is headed to Tesltra and Vodafone, while the cheaper Windows Phone 8S is bound for Telstra and Optus. The 8X is also due to be the newest 4G handset on the Telstra network.

Samsung only has one Windows Phone 8 release planned for this year. The Ativ S looks and feels a lot like the Samsung Galaxy S3, with a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED screen — the largest of the new Windows Phone range. Optus will be the only carrier to range the Ativ S at launch.

No pricing was announced for any of these products at today's launch event, with details to be released closer to the in-store date for each phone.