Smartphones and smart ads: Microsoft ups their game

Essentially everyone has a smartphone now. If you don’t, don’t feel badly – my phone is intelligent enough to function but doesn’t have all of the fancy additional features of an iPhone or Android. For those of you still waiting to jump into the world of smartphone users, Microsoft (yes, really, Microsoft) is trying to convince the world that it has the best and only real option for you.

Let me preface this by saying that I don’t know anything about the new Nokia Lumia 900 that will be made available in new colors through AT&T this weekend on April 22, 2012. What I’d really like to focus on – and what I’m most interested in someone who works in the world of digital media and marketing – is the way that Microsoft is introducing its newest technology into the market.

To be honest, it’s a stretch to call this technology “the newest” as anyone who’s been toting their iPhone around for years can tell you. Windows launched its operating system in 1985 and ever since then has slowly been taking a backseat in what’s been called the “post-Microsoft era.” However, the Nokia Lumia 900’s commercial caught my eye because of the way they were addressing not only their introduction to the market of smartphones, but also their delayed start behind competitors like Apple and Google, who power iPhones and Androids respectively.

“The Smartphone Beta Test is over.”

It’s an interesting and very clever approach to take. The idea being that Microsoft’s delayed introduction into the smartphone production race has been due to research and a desire to achieve perfection while simultaneously implying that all of their competitors have been serving as a beta test – prototypes that somehow fall short of the Microsoft mark. Anyone who already owns a smartphone and has been frustrated with their device may see this ad campaign and run with it. Social media outreach, ad placement, and marketing tactics have been used to build anticipation for the release of yet another smartphone into the market.

I’m intrigued to see if Microsoft’s newest endeavor makes good on their promise. Are people going to trade in their iPhones for the Nokia Lumia 900 due to the marketing done for the new phone? Will Microsoft find itself back in the lead of the technological race? How perfect can a smartphone actually be once you leave the “beta testing” and prototype behind and allegedly create the final product?