That works for movies because they're trying to maximize the number of people who are interested enough to go see it once, more or less. A successful phone ecosystem requires building something that people want to use over the medium term.

And the expense and commitment of buying a phone is much greater than the cost of taking a chance on the Bearded Lady.

but marketing was always a core M$ strength. it's been a standard criticism of the company for a very long time.

They were great at getting their OS preinstalled on nearly every PC. They were really good at backwards compatibility, and they were absolutely ruthless against their competition. But they always, always sucked at marketing.

you don't view "getting their OS preinstalled on nearly every PC" as marketing?

Nope. Windows 95 had a huge promotion, but most PCs already came with the OS installed, unless you built your own PC.