Microsoft To Spend $900 Million For Vista

Driven by the success of corporate multi year license renewals, Microsoft has said it will invest $900 million in sales and marketing to drive Vista, Office 2007 and Xbox 360 deals during 2007. Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said the software giant will spend $450 million to launch and market those three key products over the next 12 months, and invest another $450 million to strengthen its sales force and field sales organization to sell those major upgrades. When asked to comment on the commercial market launch of Vista or Office 2007 there was no answer but he indicated that the company is on track to deliver the business editions of the new upgrades to volume customers in November and to the general public in January.