Any room for ads?

Yesterday, display and text ads from companies like Jaguar and Paramount Pictures began appearing on the MSN Mobile portal.

The ads were launched via Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group, the fruit of its ScreenTonic SA acquisition.

ScreenTonic provides Microsoft with "a platform specifically designed for managing and providing ads on mobile phones," according to InformationWeek.

Mobile ad sales reached $421 million in 2006. That figure is expected to climb to $5 billion by 2011 in US alone, according to eMarketer.

Global mobile ad sales will climb to $11.3 billion in 2011.