Nokia to Spend £80 Million Marketing their Windows Phone 7 Handsets

Since the rise in popularity of Android handsets, and the arrival of the mighty iPhone, Nokia have seen their stock plummet. Compared to iOS and Android, Nokia’s Symbian operating system is seen as being extremely sluggish and out of date. In one of the biggest stories in smartphones from the last year, Nokia announced that they would be adopting the Windows Phone 7 operating system in all their upcoming mobile phones, presumably as a way to revive their flagging reputation.

The first Nokia phones to feature Windows Phone 7 are thought to be arriving later this year and the Finnish firm are staking £80 million in their success. According to reports in Marketing Magazine, Nokia are planning a six month, eight figure marketing campaign in an effort to put the company, and the Microsoft operating system, up there with the major players in the smartphone world.

Nokia has been struggling to keep its head above water for a number of years. Their profits and market share have been falling rapidly, and forecasts have suggested that the company many not even break even this year, potentially resulting in the loss of over 7000 jobs. The marketing campaign, set to begin in October, is thought to be Nokia’s last chance to reverse their fortunes.

The success of the Windows Phone 7 Nokia devices could be crucial to the success of both brands. Sales of Windows Phone 7 handsets has been described as ‘disappointing’ since their launch in 2010, with some estimated that they are well underneath the 700,000 mark (the iPhone 4 sold 1.7 million handsets in just 3 days). Only time will tell if the partnership between Nokia and Windows Phone 7 will be a match made in heaven, or send both brands falling into the abyss.