• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, April 17, 2012

Twitter said it will let advertisers target BlackBerry devices with mobile ad spots and Promoted Tweets, which will double as tweets and be displayed near the top of users’ timelines. “If your company’s target audience is average, middle-aged men who don’t like change (e.g. Hank from "King of the Hill"), then Twitter just did you a huge favor,” VentureBeat scoffs.

In addition to BlackBerry, advertisers can already choose to target iOS devices, Android devices, desktops/laptops, and mobile-optimized web apps. Yet, “Research In Motion, which produces BlackBerry devices, is currently experiencing a downward spiral due to increased competition from iPhones and Android phones,” VB reminds us. “Because of this, we had assumed Twitter was intentionally leaving BlackBerry devices out of its ad targeting platform when it launched. However, this is clearly not the case.”

Twitter first started rolling out the ad targeting functionality to advertisers back in February. “Promoted Tweets on BlackBerry and the ability to target campaigns to specific devices and platforms will help brands more easily connect to Twitter users -- anywhere, anytime,” the microblogging giant explained in a blog post, this week. Much like the experience on Twitter’s main site, the Promoted Tweets only appear once and can be dismissed.