Windows 8 Marketing Campaign Likely to Hit $1.5 Billion
Microsoft has poured marketing dollars into Windows 8 for well over a year as the entire PC industry is depending on a decent launch.
It is imperative that the update for the core product will get off the ground smoothly, given the fact that Windows currently accounts for 26 percent of Microsoft's revenue and 42 percent of the company's operating income, not to mention the rather depressed mood among PC makers and the sales outlook for the remainder of the year.
There is now a rumor that Microsoft has allocated between $1.5 billion and $1.8 billion of marketing spending for Windows 8. There was no official source for this number, but it sounds reasonable in light of the significance of the product. Slashgear reminds us that Microsoft spent just $200 million on marketing 95 in 1994, which is about $310 million in today's dollars, but we also remember that the company sunk about $300 million in the launch campaign of its Zune player, and more than $500 million into Windows Mobile.
A Windows flop could prove catastrophic not just for Microsoft, but for PC vendors, hardware makers and software developers alike. Unless the success of the operating system is guaranteed, which is not the case at this time, it may be cheaper for Microsoft to spend a few billion now, rather than having to deal with the fallout of another Windows Vista.
I actually had one, bought it at an AAFES store in Fort Hood,Tx.
I am confident it will. Start menu was inefficient and even MS said according to their statistics it was used very little. Who likes to go Start>Programs>Accessories>Paint.exe etc. no one does that anymore!! if you use a program often, you put it on the taskbar or a shortcut on the desktop. Windows 8 gives you that in a awesome way.
Wow, sounds like a Microsoft employee defending his work on metro UI and hoping he doesn't get fired for it.
600 million windows 7 licenses, $40 per upgrade (digital copy, cheapest one), that's $24 Billion dollars
Also, I'm not including XP SP3 and Vista which are eligible, plus we know they won't get 100% of machine upgrading.
As an MSFT investor, I don't mind them spending $1.5 billion on marketing the ROI is going to justify it.
that way EVERYONE WINS!
no it does not...i like the old fashion UI...it works and it's very simple...why confuse everyone and make it ugly at the same time?
Well then stay old! bwahahah, the rest of the world will be moving forward...after all that is how the tech industry works (it moves forward all the time). And seriously, how is it simple? I haven't used the start menu since like forever. I already explained my point before. So ist not simple, at least not as simple as it is in Windows 8.
So no thanks to the whole metro ui thing.