Microsoft is to distribute revenue to the first Windows Phone 7 (WP7) developers slightly earlier than expected and has vowed to improve the apps submission process on its new platform. In an official WP7 developer blog post, Microsoft’s Todd Brix (pictured) said the firm will payout to developers in the fourth week of January, slightly earlier than a previous February timeframe. “This payout will include payment for all sales of Windows Phone 7 apps and games that occurred after the phones became available in October 2010 through the end of December 2010,” noted Brix. After January, developer payouts will be processed on a monthly basis for all combined sales of Windows Phone 6.x and Windows Phone 7 apps for those developers who meet the minimum payout threshold limits.

Meanwhile, Microsoft has announced “a number of fixes and enhancements” to the WP7 apps submission process.  “We’ve heard you loud and clear that the registration and submission process hasn’t been ideal and has been frustrating to too many developers,” said Brix. The most notable improvement concerns the turnaround time for apps activation; Microsoft claims that over the last month 91 percent of apps have been certified and published within two days of submission, and 86 percent of the “1,000+ new developers that register in App Hub every week” now have their account vetted and validated within ten days. Other improvements include a new portal that provides WP7 developers access to up-to-date download and transaction reporting information.

In a further development, Microsoft Advertising announced this week that the Microsoft Advertising SDK for WP7 has been updated to allow ad-enabled mobile gaming apps using the XNA Framework, in addition to the Silverlight support already provided. The firm said that this will allow mobile gaming developers to easily integrate banner or text ads into their WP7 gaming apps and access XNA game-specific features like 3D graphics support, multiple graphic blend modes and built-in game loop.

Microsoft announced last month that the number of apps on the WP7 Marketplace store has surpassed 3,000 and that it had signed up 15,000 developers to support the platform. Brix said in his blog post that has since increased to “nearly” 4,000 apps and 18,000 registered developers.