Microsoft is once again doing what it is known for: spending big bucks on marketing its products.  And this time, it’s the company’s new Windows Phone that’s being promoted. Reportedly, Microsoft and its partners are spending a whopping $200 million to marketing Windows Phone devices to U.S. customers in 2012. This is perhaps one of the biggest marketing budgets in the industry, and will include spending around $10 to $15 per handset sold.

“According to internal Microsoft documentation I’ve viewed, the total cost of this marketing tsunami is in the neighborhood of $200 million,” wrote Paul Thurrott of Supersite for Windows in a Jan. 4 posting. “And, again, that’s just for the United States.” Among the initiatives: paying incentives to retail workers to push Windows Phone as an alternative to either Apple’s iPhone or any of the Google Android devices flooding the marketplace.

Microsoft will give further details about its plans for the smartphone platform during next week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Besides, we also expect the arrival of an update codenamed ‘Tango,’ which will feature products with low prices, focused on midmarket consumers. ‘Tango’ will be followed by ‘Apollo’ in the fourth quarter of this year, focusing on an increase in overall volume, competitive smartphones and business users, areas that Apple and Google have dominated this past year.

Microsoft getting cozier with Nokia?

We also heard of some resurfaced rumors of Microsoft buying Nokia‘s smartphone division, with claims that the key execs at the firms will meet in Las Vegas to finalize the sale.  Nokia’s smartphone business will make the jump in the second half of the year, but the final decision will be left to Microsoft.  So far, Nokia has been dismissing the news of its smartphone division sale, but it seems that the actual story is brimming up, and will show its hand sooner or later.