据apple insider的消息，为了开拓Windows Phone 7在智能手机方面的市场，微软预计将为此提供超过5亿美元的营销预算。科技资讯网站techcrunch曾预估微软为了弥补在智能手机市场方面的滞后行为 可能会动用高昂的营销经费提升Windows Phone 7的品牌和市场占有率。

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德意志银行Deutsche Bank分析师Jonathan Goldberg表示，这场规模浩大的市场营销可能在今年之前就会启动。

Goldberg认为智能手机市场争夺战对于微软至关重要，是他们无论花费多少代价都必须全力以赴的。其他的消息预估微软为此支付的总费用可能在10亿美元左右，其中约1半将用于市场营销。

5亿美元大致和apple2009全年的广告预算相当，苹果全年广告支出是5亿100万美元。微软2009年的全年广告预算是14亿美元。

智能手机市场上一个大市场，在2010年的苹果全球开发者大会上，Steve Jobs就宣称iphone应用程序在两年内下载超过了50亿次，总共获得了超过10亿美元的收益。

在这方面，微软仍然相当看好，据微软高级产品经理Greg Sullivan称这是一个长期战略。

Marketing costs for Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 launch will add up to more than half a billion dollars as it re-enters the smartphone market, a new report claims.

According to Kim-Mai Cutler, in a guest post on TechCrunch, Microsoft is prepared to make up for lost time in the smartphone market with an expensive marketing push.

Jonathan Goldberg, an analyst at Deutsche Bank, estimated that the Redmond, Wa., company will spend at least $400 million on marketing the Windows Phone 7 launch, which should come before the end of the year. In addition to marketing costs, Microsoft has already agreed to subsidize handset manufacturers’ “non-recurring engineering” costs.

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

Microsoft executives told Goldberg during a recent visit to company headquarters that the company, carriers, and manufacturing partners, would spend “billions” of dollars in the first year on marketing and development of Windows Phone 7. Another source estimated a $1 billion price tag for the launch, with half of it going to marketing.

$500 million is roughly the equivalent of Apple’s entire advertising budget for its 2009 fiscal year. In its 2009 Form 10-K filing to the SEC, the Cupertino, Calif., company listed $501 million in advertising expenses. Microsoft’s fiscal 2009 advertising budget was $1.4 billion.

According to the report, Microsoft, in order to attract third-party developers to its platform, is offering revenue guarantees and other financial support. The company will have an uphill battle against Apple and Google, which already have well-established ecosystems for third-party applications.

At Apple’s annual developer conference in June, CEO Steve Jobs announced that over 5 billion apps had been downloaded from its App Store in just 2 years, earning over $1 billion in revenue for developers.

Microsoft remains undaunted. Greg Sullivan, senior product manager at Microsoft, says the company is taking a “long-term view” of the market, since “it’s still in the early stages.” Anand Iyer, also a senior product manager, asserts that there is strong interest in Windows Phone 7, noting that downloads of the company’s development tools have exceeded 300,000.

In July, Microsoft pulled its KIN line of youth-oriented phones after just 48 days on the market. In an official statement, the company outlined its plan to “focus on [its] Windows Phone 7 launch.”

The KIN team was folded into the Windows Phone 7 team.

During a ReMIX Microsoft conference in France, the company referred to IDC data to estimate total sales of 30 million Windows Phone 7 devices by the end of 2011. In comparison, Jobs set a goal of 10 million iPhones sold in 2008, the first full calendar year of availability for the smartphone. （source：apple insider）