Microsoft OS head on why owning Nokia is a good thing: ‘We need to make the market for Windows Phone’

All eyes are on Microsoft to see how its $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia’s devices and services business will help its ailing Windows Phone platform.

Speaking on an investor conference call this morning, Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s executive vice president of operating systems and the former head of Windows Phone, pointed out that the deal will help the company to better make the case for Windows Phone with users.

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“We need to make the market for Windows phone, we have to go to the customer with a clear message that highlight Windows Phone’s differentiation,” Myerson said. “Marketing approaches we have used in the past are inefficient.”

Microsoft can “invest in a single campaign that allows us to officially promote Windows Phone,” Myerson added.

Microsoft’s past Windows Phone commercials have typically focused more on features of the operating system — its customizable home screen, its focus on personalization — rather than a single killer device. Now that Microsoft can officially push Nokia’s hardware as its own, it can finally wrap its marketing around a physical product.

Its unclear if marketing alone is to blame for Windows Phones issues. Nokia’s Lumia devices have been the platform’s shining star, but as good as the hardware is, Windows Phone still lags behind the iPhone and Android when it comes to apps and basic system services. That’s something that just about ruined Nokia’s Lumia 1020 for me, even though that phone sports the best smartphone camera I’ve ever seen.