Microsoft to spend $400 million to promote Windows Phone 7

Microsoft's new smartphone platform Windows Phone 7 (hereinafter referred to as "WP7") will be released in the United States time this Monday, and Microsoft plans to spend 400 million dollars to promote the system. Currently, Microsoft lags behind Apple and Google in the smartphone OS market, and WP7 is a life-and-death product. Whether WP7 can attract consumers is still unknown, but Microsoft's big advantage is that it has plenty of cash. For WP7, Microsoft will spend $400 million to promote the system.

Monday, Samsung, LG and HTC and other manufacturers will display their WP7 products. In the UK, almost all major mobile operators will launch WP7 handsets on Christmas Eve. Whether 400 million dollars of promotional costs will be WP7, at least until next year.

Some analysts believe WP7 is the last chance for Microsoft to catch up with rivals in the smartphone market. According to Gartner, Microsoft currently has a 5% per cent share of the global smartphone market, compared with 9% a year ago. Google Android is 17%, just 2% a year ago.

As the world's largest handset maker, Nokia's smartphone market share is 41%, while Apple's market share is 14%. Gartner expects global smartphone sales to reach 270 million this year, up 56% per cent year-on-year. By contrast, global PC sales will reach 368 million this year, up 19% per cent year-on-year.

Microsoft's position in the mobile and mobile computing market is deteriorating. Earlier this year, Microsoft launched a kin mobile phone for young users, but it was stopped selling in less than 3 months because of poor sales. In the tablet market, Windows-based products will not be available anytime soon.

At the same time, Microsoft rivals are busy with their new products. Rim released a 200-dollar blackberry Torch in August. In June, Apple unveiled the latest generation of iphone 4 handsets. In addition, manufacturers such as Motorola and Samsung have also launched mobile phones based on Android.

In the long run, analysts are not optimistic about Microsoft's prospects in the smartphone market. Instead, analysts are consistently bullish on Symbian and the Android system. Gartner expects global smartphone sales to reach 875 million in 2014, with Nokia and Android Market share of 30%, with Apple expected to be 15%,rim at 12% and Microsoft at 4%.