Microsoft has been in the mobile phone business for quite some time although in the past has lagged behind the likes of Apple and their iPhone and pushed even further back with the arrival of Google’s Android, but Microsoft plans on making a big comeback with their Windows Phone 7, but making that comeback is going to cost, and cost a bundle.

According to an article over on Gizmodo by Rosa Golijan and by way of Techcrunch, Microsoft is going to be pushing billions of bucks into Windows Phone 7 development and marketing in the first year.

According to telecommunications analyst at Deutsche Bank, Jonathan Goldberg, has estimated that Microsoft will pay out on marketing alone $400 million when it launches Windows Phone 7, and Goldberg says… “This is make-or-break for them. They need to do whatever it takes to stay in the game. It’s still wide open. They don’t have to take share from Android or Apple, so long as they can attract enough consumers switching from feature phones.”

Goldman visited Microsoft and was apparently told that along with Microsoft carrier and manufacturing partners would “likely” spend “billions” of dollars in the 1st year on development and marketing while another source told him they will spend $1 billion on the Windows Phone 7 launch, half going to development and half to marketing.