Hot the heels of Google's own in-app payment platform for Android Market, InMobi has lifted in the lid on SmartPay – a mobile and Android monetisation solution that directly links to its ad network.

InMobi claims SmartPay will enable developers to equip their releases with a secure in-app purchase system, allowing consumers to pay using carrier billing, credit cards, PayPal and local mobile wallets.

Making millions from billions

Though InMobi is looking to launch in 30 countries in all, from day one SmartPay will already boast a potential userbase of 1 billion consumers across seven different territories; the US, UK, Germany, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Malaysia.

From InMobi's perspective, the move into IAPs is valuable way of extending its network's reach, reacting to the ever changing nature of mobile monetisation.

"Our mission is to connect businesses and developers to consumers around the world with innovative, best of breed mobile technology and services," said CEO Naveen Tewari.

"InMobi SmartPay will help us with that journey and our evolution as a company to be a key technology enabler within the global mobile ecosystem, especially for the developer community."

Eye on analytics

SmartPay's key differentiator from the stand alone in-app billing systems already available, in InMobi's view, is the ability for developers to track users' habits, from any initial ad impression through to the in-app purchases that follow.

Integrating with InMobi's existing analytics system, SmartPay will serve as a measure of actual purchase behaviour, providing studios with a real-time ad-serving feedback loop.

SmartPay is already active with a number of InMobi's clients, but will move into private beta within the next 60 to 90 days before its official launch in Q3 2011.

Developers interested in signing up for SmartPay should contact InMobi via SmartPay [at] InMobi [dot] com.