• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, July 17, 2013

Samsung has been spending to keep its mobile momentum going, while Apple continues as a hard-to-miss presence in prime time. Yet, the top spender in the January-March quarter in the tech category was Microsoft as it backed its Windows Phone, Surface tablet and Windows 8 operating system, according to Nielsen.

Microsoft increased spending more than 200% over the first quarter in 2012 to become the leading spender. It dethroned Intuit, which had been at the top for five years as it markets tax preparation software TurboTax heavily leading up to April 15.

Overall, the category soared as spending rose 30% to $723 million.  Compare that to overall ad spending, which fell 1%.

Google and Amazon were also heavy spenders, along with Apple. Nielsen did not cite Samsung, which spends heavily behind its Galaxy products. Clearly, the tablet wars are benefiting ad sellers.

“Technology has become so widely available that it pervades every aspect of life to some degree,” stated Randall Beard, global head of advertiser solutions at Nielsen. “But with increased accessibility comes increased competition, and companies are investing hefty sums into creating buzz around their biggest products in order to secure a share of this sizable market.”

As seen by the stretch from a TurboTax to a Google, the tech category as defined by Nielsen is a wide one, covering everything in hardware and software .