Microsoft Investing Billions in Windows Phone 7
Microsoft is hoping to give Windows Phone 7 the start it needs by pumping about a billion dollars into the launch.
Microsoft is investing a huge amount of time and effort in Windows Phone 7, that much is obvious. But it looks like the company is going to spend two boatloads of money on it too. Rumor has it, Redmond will be sinking at least half a billion dollars on Windows Phone 7 advertising along with payments to developers and handset manufacturers to ensure all is as it should be when the operating system launches.
TechCrunch cites analyst Jonathan Goldberg who believes Microsoft will spent $400 million in advertising alone. Add in other necessary costs, along with the millions Microsoft has already spent on "non-recurring engineering" costs that help offset development costs for manufacturers, and you've got quite a pretty penny.
TechCrunch also reports that some manufacturers have accepted payments only to back out of agreements at a later date. HP was one of the partners named at the WP7 launch and was supposed to be building several WP7 phones. But the company purchased Palm a month later and it's thought that whatever Microsoft paid (it could have been as much as $20 million) may be lost.
Goldberg goes on to say that, on a recent visit to Microsoft, an executive told him the company would be spending "billions" on marketing and development for year one. Another said it'd spend a billion on the launch, with half a billion earmarked for development costs and the other half poured into marketing.
That's a huge chunk of change, even if we discount what the Microsoft sources are saying and just go with Goldberg's own figure of half a billion. However, Microsoft has reached a point in the mobile market where it's now or never. Windows Mobile isn't doing as well as the company hoped and the scars have yet to fade from the failures that were the Kin One and Kin Two.
Microsoft first announced Windows Phone 7 and the Mobile World Congress in March of this year. The first handsets running the operating system are expected to hit before the holidays.
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does it run crysis???
zzz 400 million for ads? too much.
Imagine what kind of phone someone would have if that billion went into making the OS that much better....instead it's going to be spent on advertising and bribes to hardware manufacturers so they use MS. The OS might be good, but (like many game companies) it's easier to spend money on name recognition then it is to make something really special.
Im guessing ^^ will be getting banned pretty soon lol
Im guessing ^^ will be getting banned pretty soon lol
Yes, but unfortunately the mods/admins can no longer IP ban, however, the spammer just keeps creating new accounts.
Whats there name was going to try a new market with 48 mill. This is the big league and MS knows how to play.
I think this may be too little too late, just as the Blackberry Torch. Its going to be tough playing catchup. The only upshot, is that Microsoft has a huge developer base, and as such will rapidly gain the applications that are available on Android / iPhone already. That and they do have deep pockets to get their product out there, so we'll see if the consumers are in line.. Also, MS has never shown any partiality to any carrier, therefore its unlikely they'll have a exclusivity agreement and create a valdeez situation like Apple did with AT&T.
Phones are not even fun to watch anymore, they phase out so fast that one can't get used to type on them and they plop comes a new one. Why they even care about the OS it has in it, it's gonna change in less than a week or so, when a new Ephone comes out, or a R2D2-X15 or what ever comes out with a new OS and every one goes after that piece of plastic with glass like sheep's after grass!
I think this may be too little too late, just as the Blackberry Torch. Its going to be tough playing catchup. The only upshot, is that Microsoft has a huge developer base, and as such will rapidly gain the applications that are available on Android / iPhone already. That and they do have deep pockets to get their product out there, so we'll see if the consumers are in line.. Also, MS has never shown any partiality to any carrier, therefore its unlikely they'll have a exclusivity agreement and create a valdeez situation like Apple did with AT&T.
Very true. The company I work is a M$ partner and has several contracts with Microsoft to develop for Phone 7. The tech is nice, but we'll see how it goes with execution. I hope that M$ doesn't screw this up. The phone has a lot of potential and the platform is VERY easy to develop for, being XNA and Silverlight.
i hope they start more stable than android!!. Im not saying i dont like android (i do!!!) since i have a device with it but the thing is that is very glitchy and sometime even sluguish for a phone or even a fast phone!
I think its already making some inroads with the general consumer. I watched CTV news and the guy responsible for tech news was quite impressed with the new device running on that Samsung prototype.
Windows Phone 7 is going to be a big flop, just like the Microsoft Kin phone.
Microsoft is spending more money on the advertising than on the actual phone OS. That's why there are so many missing features in Windows Phone 7, such as no app multitasking, and no cut&paste.
It's because Microsoft put more effort into the advertising than actually creating the phone, and did a rushed half-baked job of it in the end.
I assume its going to be nothing like the desktop version otherwise it will need some pretty impressive hardware just to run it
Microsoft's mobile phone market share has been going down for 10 years. They haven't really got anywhere to go but up or out now.
You'd be better off spending that money giving it to the homeless so they can spend it on beer, cigarettes and other drugs. The DROID X and iPhone already have the market.
And RIM, and especially symbian
Also meego is being released soon
ITS VISTA ALL OVER AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have the feeling that being a huge monopolist for decades Microsoft has absolutely no clue what is going on in the real world and that's why they seem to have a success only in the Windows / MS Office area where they do not have any competition.
In all other areas they just screw things up some examples are:
- MP3 player
- browser
- kin
etc.
XBOX 360 is a kind of partial success but it cannot be compared to Nintendo Wii and PS3 seems to gain ground lately pretty fast.
The only really good thing about MS is that they develop good development tools for free.
I also think that "Windows", "MS Windows" on a phone is a bad marketing strategy.
The horrible buggy OS that makes your PC crawl. ??? I bet almost none tech savvy people would like a phone with an Windows logo on it.
Who wants Windows on their phone???
When it comes to phones, Microsoft = Fail. They've never had a successful phone product. Ever. They all sucked because they tried to put a Windows peecee UI on a handset, which just doesn't work. Plus they've always been well behind the competition in terms of technology. Fact it, nobody wants Windows, and all it's associated problems, on their phone.
Imagine what kind of phone someone would have if that billion went into making the OS that much better....instead it's going to be spent on advertising and bribes to hardware manufacturers so they use MS. The OS might be good, but (like many game companies) it's easier to spend money on name recognition then it is to make something really special.
In the case of Microsoft, it wouldn't make much difference. If they wanted to dump $500 million into the OS, there's not much stopping them. Developer butt kissing is also what helped them beat down Apple in the 90s, and stand against the Playstation brand to where Playstation had to adopt the same tactic.
XBOX 360 is a kind of partial success but it cannot be compared to Nintendo Wii and PS3 seems to gain ground lately pretty fast.
The Xbox 360 is definitely a success. It has maintained a 5 million console lead over the PS3, and dominates the PS3 in America. To be fair, the Wii beat both of them. The console is also making them money.
I like the phone, its very neat and the animations look really great. Cant wait to get one of these
M$ has been spending alot of money over the last year in EDD for R&D, and while they DID launch a redesigned console and they will be releasing Kiect, I'm sure alot of that money when into WP7. Now, was it billions...I hardly doubt it, but it was a sizable chunk of change. As for moving forward, since we haven't seen any devices and developer software, we really can't say, but based on the line-up of gaming titles announced, WP7 is going to hit hte ground running. M$ ofcourse has a huge advantage in that the learning curve to develop for WP7 was probably not very steep.
that's what happen when u made such a shitty product before (windows mobile) and now everyone running to apple or android and Microsoft end up with bad name, consumer wont forget how bad those windows mobile was, constant crashes and veryyyy slow, keeps on running out of memory, same thing what happen to palm, I hope these company really learn their lesson to do and give the best to their clients/customers, after all their success is because of us consumers.
MS isn't trying to win over all of the iOS and Android users. The smartphone market is expanding rapidly right now. They want to get all the new users coming in to smartphones. The smartphone market is just beginning. Also, don't think the vast majority of consumers are anything like those of us who frequent tech sites like Tom's.
hope with one more big player in the market, competition will heat up and we consumers will eventually be the winners
A billion dollars is simply not enough. Think of all the man-hours that have gone into Android (for free I might add). Open source software is going to win, and it becomes more and more apparent all the time.
I wish they spent some money keeping their Zune series alive. It seems like they've forgot their Zune customers. I'd love to see some of these Windows 7 phone features migrated to the Zune. Some better games or apps? Give the iTouch SOME competition at least!
I can't wait for win mo 7! Being a developer who has done tons of silverlight and xna already, I can't wait to try it out!
Imagine what kind of phone someone would have if that billion went into making the OS that much better....instead it's going to be spent on advertising and bribes to hardware manufacturers so they use MS. The OS might be good, but (like many game companies) it's easier to spend money on name recognition then it is to make something really special.
exactly, it would be a phone that everyone desires.
I also think that "Windows", "MS Windows" on a phone is a bad marketing strategy.Who wants Windows on their phone??? The horrible buggy OS that makes your PC crawl. ??? I bet almost none tech savvy people would like a phone with an Windows logo on it.
Better than an apple on your phone. And tech savvy people would actually enjoy Windows on their phone. I am tech savvy and am looking forward to this. Hopefully they'll become far more popular than the iphone and get better development. Plus they can integrate with your PC a lot better too, it'll be awesome.