MIcrosoft Launches Ads On MSN Mobile

Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) on Monday began displaying mobile advertising to MSN Mobile customers for the first time, in hopes of generating additional revenue from the budding business.

Now when mobile users in the United States visit Microsoft's MSN Mobile Web page on their cell phone and smartphone browsers, they'll see banner and text ad placements from companies like Paramount Pictures and Jaguar Cars North America. Both have signed up as Microsoft's early partners.

When displaying the ads, Microsoft said it will conform to the U.S. mobile advertising guidelines supplied by the Mobile Marketing Association, a non-profit made up of agencies, advertisers, device manufacturers, carriers, retailers, software providers, and service providers that want to bring marketing to mobile devices.

The software giant claims that the introduction of mobile ads will enhance the experience for customers: "Microsoft is continuing to make significant investments in the MSN Mobile portal. By incorporating advertising on MSN Mobile, we are allowing advertisers to extend their existing campaigns from PCs to games and now to mobile phones, further delivering on our vision to extend advertising across multiple platforms and devices," said Joanne Bradford, MSN's corporate VP and chief media officer, in a statement.

The technology that Microsoft used to embed banner and text ads in its mobile portal was created by Microsoft's Advertiser and Publisher Solutions Group with expertise gained from its acquisition of ScreenTonic SA, which created a platform specifically designed for managing and providing ads on mobile phones.

Mobile advertising sales in the U.S. accounted for $421 million in 2006. That number is expected to reach nearly $5 billion by 2011 in the U.S. alone, according to market research firm eMarketer. Global mobile advertising sales will reach $11.3 billion by 2011.

Microsoft plans to capitalize on this opportunity through ad placements that provide advertisers with way to reach its MSN Mobile users. The company already launched similar efforts in Belgium, France, Japan, Spain, and the U.K.

Consumers, however, are not so eager to see advertising on their mobile phones. Many find mobile ads annoying, even when they come with promotions and special offerings. Microsoft is trying to present mobile ads as an "enhancement" to the content it already offers on MSN Mobile. But it might be a tough sell to mobile users who are already frustrated with their tiny phone screens without banner ads taking up the precious viewing space.

Microsoft to tighten Windows Vista against pirates

Los Angeles, December 4: Microsoft Corp said Monday it would disable the two primary methods used by software pirates to illegally copy Windows Vista software in the next major update of the operating system.

The world's largest software maker loses billions of dollars to software piracy every year. Microsoft said new features built into Vista are reducing piracy levels by half compared with its previous operating system, Windows XP.

Microsoft plans to improve that one step farther still with changes built into Windows Vista Service Pack 1, the first major update to the operating system, which is due out in the first quarter of 2008.

The company plans to close a loophole that let pirates mimic activation used by some computer manufacturers to install Vista. Microsoft also will clamp down on a method of extending a "grace period" time between installation and activation.

According to trade group Business Software Alliance, about 35 percent of the world's consumer software is pirated. Windows, which sits on more than 90 percent of the world's computers, accounts for the bulk of those pirated copies.

Many software pirates sell illegally copied versions on auction sites and some small computer manufacturers install pirated versions of Vista on PCs sold to unknowing victims.

Microsoft said it would also change how it deals with pirated versions of Vista, whose users will now get recurring notifications that their version of software is fraudulent with a link to buy a genuine copy. Currently, Microsoft shuts down features in Vista when it finds a pirated copy.

If a user of pirated software wants to purchase a genuine copy of Windows from Microsoft, they can do so for $89 for the Home Basic version or $119 for the Home Premium version.

Reducing piracy is considered one major way for the $51 billion software maker to spur growth in its dominant software franchises. The company said improvements in reducing piracy helped to spur a 25 percent rise in Windows sales in the September quarter.

Microsoft declined to estimate the financial impact of its new measures. The company had sold 88 million Vista licenses as of the end of September.

Singapore lifts ban on Microsoft video game - paper

Singapore, November 16: Singapore has lifted a ban on a Microsoft Corp. video game that contains a scene showing a human woman and an alien woman kissing and caressing, a local newspaper reported Saturday.

The Strait Times said Mass Effect would instead be sold with an M18 label, meaning it can't be bought by anybody under the age of 18.

Mass Effect is the first video game to be given a rating in the country, and follows a public outcry over the ban. It effectively fast tracks a new ratings system that was due to come into effect in January, the paper said.

A similar move was made for the movie Lust, Caution, which was released uncut with a R21 age restriction after first being shown in a censored form.