this is why MS are still in console biz ;) 

If only they invested that much in making games.

In 2009, Apple spent about 1/3 of what Microsoft did, so to some extent your point is true.

However, Microsoft has many more initiatives to cover: Windows, Office, Xbox, etc.  If I recall, Apples budget for the MAC OS ("Hi, I'm a Mac...") actually exceeded Windows Vista advertising by a substantial amount.

That being said, I think it's interesting that Kinect awareness in the pre-oder marketplace is a large as it appears, when the advertising hasn't really hit yet. 

Sounds like the same budget and marketing scheme they had with Halo3.

I don't think it will be nearly that successful though.

MS marketing budget far exceed Apple's by a huge margin. Apple just have better marketing.

Pushing 500 million dollars on advertising for this is stupid. What if it completely fails Microsoft? You can advertise all you want but it still doesn't change the fact that your un-finished technology is over priced.

Great! *waits at office mailbox to see when the Microsoft cheque drops* Oww there it is! :D

Halo 3 had a 30 million dollar advertising budget...this is 500 million

I'm not sure you were following my point...let's see, check this: http://techcrunch.com/2008/11/21/yup-apples-advertising-budget-is-bigger-than-microsoft-vistas/

As I noted, for OS vs OS, Apple's macintosh budget was bigger in 2008 than Microsofts Vista budget (when those ads started I believe).  OVER the whole company, Microsoft's advertising budget WAS bigger (about 3 times, as I stated), but they spent it on different iniatives.  Make sense now?

The "Hi I'm a Mac" campaign was a huge success I would never argue that it wasn't.  The quality of the advertising wasn't really under discussion though, I didn't think.

My point is MS is spending 500 million on KInect alone which is the total amount Apple spend for the whole year in marketing. Vista was never well advertised because it sucked ass, go look at win 7 advertisement.