A Nike ad created with iAd was demoed during Apple&39's iPhone 4.0 event.

Apple's iAd is setting up shop in Japan.

Released in the U.S. over the summer, the mobile ad platform will reach iPhone and iPod Touch users in Japan in early 2011, Apple said yesterday.

Apple will host, target, and deliver the ads, while Tokyo-based ad agency Dentsu Group will sell and develop them. Dentsu's subsidiary Cyber Communications will handle the specific planning and production of the ads.

"After an incredibly successful launch in the U.S. where we've already doubled the number of brands on the network, we're excited to bring iAd to Japan," Andy Miller, Apple's vice president of iAd, said in a statement. "Dentsu is one of the world's most prestigious advertising agencies, making them an ideal partner for iAds in Japan."

Apple sees iAd as a way for developers of free apps to make some money, giving them 60 percent of the ad revenue. Since its debut, iAd has been limited to the iPhone and iPod Touch. But the upcoming release of iOS 4.2 will bring iAd's mobile ads to the iPad as well.

Ads created through iAd appear within an actual app and open up full blown in a window when clicked on, rather than redirecting users to a separate Web page. The first ads via iAd hit the iPhone in the U.S. in early July. One report at the time said that some advertisers paid as much as $1 million for mobile ad space, with early adopters including Walt Disney, AT&T, General Electric, Geico, J.C. Penney, Target, and Best Buy.