Microsoft Could Spend More Than 500 Million Dollars On Windows Phone 7 Launch

In a very lengthy post, TechCrunch reports that Microsoft could be spending more than a half billion dollars for marketing and payments to developers and handset manufacturers to launch Windows Phone 7. While that is definitely a large sum of money, it is probably necessary to get Microsoft back into the mobile market. Microsoft claims that unlike the aborted attempt with Kin, they are taking a long term view on Windows Phone 7, so the amount of money they spend will likely grow well past the half billion mark.