Windows Phone 8 was announced just a few hours ago by the Windows Phone team in San Francisco.

As a consumer, Windows Phone 8 will enable new hardware capabilities and expanded features that deliver a uniquely personal mobile experience.

One of the things that’s enabled with the new hardware (such as NFC) is the Windows 8 Wallet. Windows Phone 8’s new digital Wallet feature does two great things. It can keep debit and credit cards, coupons, boarding passes, and other important info right at your fingertips. And when paired with a secure SIM from your carrier, you can also pay for things with a tap of your phone at compatible checkout counters.

The start screen will become more customizable to your preferences. As you can see, we’re making Windows Phone 8 even more personal, with a new palette of theme colors and three sizes of Live Tiles, all of which are under your control. We know Live Tiles are one of the things current owners really love about their Windows Phones, and we wanted to make them even more flexible and unique. This short video shows the new Start screen in action.

Watch this video to find out more.

For Windows Phone 7.5 users, we will rollout a Windows Phone 7.8 update separately that will bring some of Windows Phone 8’s user interface changes to existing devices.

For developers, new hardware in Windows Phone 8 will enable a more unified Windows platform, creating more opportunities for developers and the Windows Phone ecosystem.

Windows Phone 8 will share the same kernel, file system, media foundation, device drivers, and parts of the security model from Windows 8. The Windows NT architecture enables Windows Phone 8 to support multi-core processors, device encryption, removable storage with microSD cards, and a whole host of improvements for IT pros and businesses.

Here are 8 New Features of Windows Phone 8 for Developers:

1. SQLite – embedded database engine SQLite,will be available for phone developers. SQLite has been previously unavailable on Windows Phone (as it’s written in C). Now you can have access to use these libraries.

 

2. Speech/ VoIP (Talking with apps) API – Windows Phone 8 will include a conversational speech recognition system based on the TellMe technology used in Windows Phone 7. What’s interesting though, is that developers will be able to add new nouns and verbs to TellMe so that users can use the same conversational style to perform specific actions within applications.

 

3. Gaming Middleware – Middleware partners such as Havok Technology and Autodesk will support Windows Phone 8 and Windows Phone 8 games developed using the Havok Technology Suite, will feature immersive and real 3-D worlds, highly realistic characters and cinematic visuals.

 

4. Native Code – Native code support: Windows Phone 8 has full C and C++ support, making it easier to write apps for multiple platforms more quickly.

 

5. Multitasking background location – With the next version of Windows Phone, real background multitasking will be opened up to all devs, thanks to libraries provided directly by Redmond. This means that Windows Phone 8 now allows location-based apps like exercise trackers or navigation aids to run in the background, so they keep working even when you’re doing other things on your phone.

 

6. HTML5, C# (For Both Win 8 and Phone 8 Devs) and C++ (For Games Dev) – Now developers can write native code, as well as XNA, C#, and HTML5. You can also now use the full Microsoft .NET suite instead of the previous Compact Framework.

 

7. Enterprise Hub (Custom App for internal information)

 

8. Enterprise Private App Store – Companies can create their own Windows Phone 8 Hub for custom employee apps and other critical business info.

 

Follow more news about Windows Phone 8 here or check out the Windows Phone team blog to find out more new features!

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