In the wake of Nokia"s reveal of its Windows Phone-based products, Microsoft has now launched a new content where 20 people will be able to win a Windows Phone 7.5-based device. The contest is detailed on the official Windows Phone blog and will be conducted on the Windows Phone Twitter page. The contest started today and ends on November 7.
The contest is starting slow by offering one daily winner smaller prizes, including the coveted Windows Phone t-shirt and sticker... impress your friends. The final day of the contest, November 7, is when Microsoft will go all out and give away 20 Windows Phone 7.5-based smartphones to random entries. There"s no word on what phone models will be given away.
This kind of marketing push, combined with the launch in parts of Europe of the Nokia Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 phones, represents Microsoft"s biggest push yet to get consumers to try out smartphones based on its operating system. The operating system is still well behind the iOS and Android-based phones and it"s even behind the struggling Blackberry platform which has been dealing with one issue after another lately in terms of marketshare.
While we don"t expect Windows Phone 7 to make a lot of sales strides here in the US in the holiday quarter (there are simply too many phones from the competition to deal with) that might not be the case in Europe which is where Nokia will spend most of its time marketing the new Lumia phones. If these phones are a sales success, things could turn around quickly for Windows Phone 7.