Paul Thurrott, who has a good inside track to Microsoft’s Windows Phone team, said that the rumored $100M 2012 marketing budget for Windows Phone is way off.

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He says that he was told that the marketing budget for the U.S. alone is in the $200M range. Despite Thurrott’s general reliability of Microsoft related information, I’m still skeptical. It is not how much marketing money is spend, it is about how that marketing money is spent. Do you remember those Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates TV adds from 2008 to advertise… Well, I’m not sure what they were supposed to advertise. But, Seinfeld was reportedly paid $10M for two or three commercials that fizzled out.