Microsoft launches SDK for mobile ad network

Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) is releasing a software development kit (SDK) for mobile advertising on its forthcoming operating system, Windows Phone 7, and the Microsoft Advertising Exchange for Mobile.
Hailing it as the “industry’s first real-time, bidded ad exchange in mobile,” Microsoft hopes it can makes some inroads against Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Google Inc. (GOOG) and their respective fresh ad networks, which have taken an early lead.
The new platforms are designed to enable display ad serving for Windows Phone 7 apps, Raj Kapoor, global director for product planning and marketing at Microsoft Mobile Advertising, wrote in a blog post. Targeting capabilities of the new service include “demographic, category, carrier and location targeting; text and image units; click-to-call and click-to-web ad actions, and robust reporting on in-app ad revenue, ad inventory, clicks, CPM and sell through rate,” Kapoor added.
The company has also partnered with third-party ad networks Millennial Media, WHERE, InMobi and MobClix to integrate their offerings into the exchange before the consumer launch of Windows Phone 7. Developers can download the Mobile Advertising SDK for Windows 7 and get more information at http://advertising.microsoft.com/mobile-apps.
In other Microsoft news, CNET has confirmed that Windows Phone 7 devices won’t be ready for CDMA networks until next year, which means Verizon Wireless (VZ) and Sprint Nextel Corp. (S) customers won’t be seeing Microsoft’s latest OS refresh until 2011.