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Prepare for another round of in-you-face marketing from Microsoft. In an interview with TechCrunch, Jonathan Goldberg, a telecommunications analyst at Deutsche Bank, explained he believes Microsoft will dole out $400 million to promote Windows Phone 7. This massive spend comes on top of the tens of millions Microsoft has already spent to entice developers to make Windows Phone 7 apps, and getting hardware manufacturers onboard.

“This is make-or-break for them. They need to do whatever it takes to stay in the game. 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.” says Goldberg.

Microsoft spent around $500 million on both the Windows XP and xBox launches, and it appears they're set to buy themselves into the smart phone market after several failed attempts (Pink anyone?...). Microsoft was successful in expanding their grasp of the desktop with Windows XP, and another massive spend certainly gave them a solid play in the gaming market, but this isn't the mid/late-90's, and the smart phone market isn't a nascent wasteland of stagnation and feeble competition.

Ignore Microsoft's forthcoming marketing and their drummed up hype that is starting to assail the tech media, as the success of Windows Phone 7 swirls around one question; Is Windows Phone 7 relevant? It's a question long-suffering Mac users remember all too well from the 90's, but at the time it was a valid point. The consumer may not think about this question specifically, but somewhere in their thought process they've sifted through many ideas before buying the smartphone of choice:

- Is the hardware cool? Is it quality?

- Does it bring synergies with my friends smartphones?

- Is it easy to use (is it intuitive)?

- Does it have 200k apps like an iPhone?

- Does it have that killer app I saw on my friends iPhone?

- Does it have an ecosystem of accessories?

Whether consumer think through these questions consciously or not, they are hidden in the thought process. Look at the questions again, and then answer them. The results are somewhere in the realm of kinda, no, maybe, nope, and not a chance. 

Microsoft can make us completely ill with shoving ads down our throats all day long, but the consumer has become less sheep and more savvy over the past decade. People learn from their friends, they try out products, investigate online and they made decisions based on a value set that works for them, not what some ad campaign told them to do. The reality is Buick buyers and naive consumers are the markets where Microsoft's traditional advertising will work, so don't count on their media blitz to do much more than nibble at that small fraction of the cell phone market.

Just be sure keep a bottle of pepto on-hand to work your way through a year or so of Microsoft induced advertising nausea.

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