Microsoft's mobile store now has Windows Phone 8 versions of Bing Weather, News, Finance and Sports, and they are practically identical ports of the Windows 8 versions.

Bing Weather features forecasts for multiple places. Users can pin those forecasts to the Start Screen as well, thanks to regularly updating Live Tiles. Users will even have access to the same maps found on the Windows 8 version. Bing News offers the ability to add and edit news sources, and it serves up alerts or a Live Tile for the latest and breaking news.

Bing Finance has the usual stock-watch list, as well as a Live Tile for pinned, real-time finance information on the Start Screen. Lastly, Bing Sports lets users pick favourite teams from a variety of sports like NFL, NHL or NBA, MLB. They can then pin those teams to the Start Screen for up-to-the-minute sports stats.

Read: Nokia Lumia 1020 review

The apps at first blush appear to be good duplicates of the Windows 8 versions, and they are long overdue. Microsoft is clearly trying to beef up the Windows Phone 8 ecosystem with this latest batch of ports - especially now that Nokia consumers are demanding more for their Lumia 1020 and 925.

Check out the gallery below for some screenshots.