As you probably know, Samsung’s first Windows Phone 8 handset, the Samsung Ativ S has been a bit of an elusive smartphone what with seeing delay after delay with getting the device out into the mobile space. We recently reported that the Ativ S had been given yet another delay and the device wouldn’t arrive until February 2013. However, it seems that report was wrong.

The word is old Sammy has quietly released the Samsung Ativ S over in Europe, in Austria to be precise, on T-Mobile, and T-Mobile Austria confirmed the arrival of Samsung’s first Windows Phone 8 smartphone by sending WPCentral a picture of the smartphone sitting on yesterday’s newspaper as proof.

Thus the Samsung Ativ S has finally come out to play but only in Austria for the moment, where the smartphone is in stock and available as a free handset on contract for the 16GB model, but there is no sign of the 32GB version.

The Samsung Ativ S delays had previously been put down to the success and demand for both the Samsung Galaxy S3 and Samsung Galaxy Note 2, but it would appear that particular reason for delaying the handset is no longer an issue.

As a remainder, the Ativ S sports the same 4.8-inch Super AMOLED HD touch screen and 8 megapixel rear facing camera as the Galaxy S3, and also packs a 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 dual core processor, and a 2300mAh battery.

T-Mobile Austria is touting the Ativ S as a Windows 8 phone that oozes elegance, and as the smartphone is now in stock and available in Austria, hopefully it shouldn’t be too long before we see the Samsung Ativ S pop up for sale in other markets.

Are any of our readers still hanging on so they can pick up the Samsung Ativ S when it is released in their country?