Microsoft to start Windows 8 marketing blitz this weekend

If you haven’t heard about Windows 8 yet, you will soon. A lot.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Microsoft and its partners will begin heavily marketing the upcoming operating system and related tablets, computers and other products this weekend.

The Redmond, Wash., company and its partners are counting on the new operating system to revitalize their sales, and they’ve cumulatively paid in the hundreds of millions to advertise their new products, according to the Journal. Forbes, however, says the number is a lot higher than that and could go into the billion-dollar range.

Windows 8 and various Windows 8 products will launch Oct. 26, most notably the Microsoft Surface tablet, which will be taking on the Apple iPad.

Microsoft is working with advertising firm Crispin Porter + Bogusky and has already begun advertising the Surface tablet around New York, San Francisco and Chicago.

Microsoft is hoping for a successful holiday shopping season this year and is setting up numerous temporary retail stores around the country just for the holidays.

In a confirmation of just how important the launch of Windows 8 is to the company, Microsoft announced a new logo earlier this year. The logo change is Microsoft’s first in 25 years and is meant to mark the start of a new era.

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