Microsoft to up the ante in mobile phone wars – to offer stores a bounty on sales of Windows Phone

There is no getting around it, Microsoft is facing an uphill battle when it comes to Windows Phone. Already several years behind the market leaders like Apple and Android the company has had a really hard time getting their products into the hands of consumers.

We have heard more than a few stories of sales clerks at carrier stores doing everything they can to steer customers away from buying a Windows Phone using tactics that ranged from ignorance about the phone to outright lying about it. It is like a case of who needs enemies when you have friends like this.

Well it seems that Microsoft is going to take the fight to the carriers and their sales staff and offer a bounty on the number of Windows Phone sales made through the stores. According to reports from sources close to the matter the bounty being offered will be in the range of $10 to $15 per phone depending on the total numbers sold.

This rumor is being supported by the fact that Microsoft has announced that they will be spending close to $200 million in the US alone to get Windows Phone into the hands of consumers.

Of course this information has the tech pundits falling over themselves writing up posts about how this “bounty” is a signal that Microsoft is getting desperate.

Seriously?

What do you expect a company to do when no matter what it does do its supposed partners are doing everything they can to throw roadblocks in the way of Windows Phone. Up until now Windows Phone has been getting really good reviews from the majority of those self-same tech pundits but because of the carriers and their sales staff Microsoft can’t get traction with the consumer. So I don’t blame them the least in deciding to throw some money around and appeal to the basic greed of the individual sales people to actually sell their products.

via electronista