Jonathan Goldberg, a telecommunications analysts, told TechCrunch that they estimate Microsoft will spend more than $400 million (other sources say closer to half a billion) on a marketing campaign to make sure Windows Phone 7 is a hit this holiday season.
“This is make-or-break for them. They need to do whatever it takes to stay in the game,” says Goldberg. “It’s still wide open. They don’t have to take share from Android or Apple, so long as they can attract enough consumers switching from feature phones.”
Goldberg claims that when he visited Redmond last month, Microsoft executives told him that Microsoft plans on spending billions–yes, with an S–of dollars in first-year marketing; $1 billion will supposedly be spent just on its debut.
PCWorld rounds up just how much Microsoft has spent on marketing campaigns in the past: on XP, Vista, and Xbox, Microsoft spent around the same $500 million; Bing saw up-to $100 million; and while there’s no real, solid number, estimates for Windows 7′s marketing campaign are near $1 billion.
Windows Phone 7 is rumored to debut later this year, in October. (Read our mini-column, 7for7, based on 7 reasons in 7 weeks why you should wait for Windows Phone 7.)
Not to derail the story, but why couldn’t Zune get some of the pie?
