A preliminary look at Microsoft’s newest mobile operating system, Windows Phone 7, shows that the platform is off to a disappointing start, and is struggling to gain even the tiniest foothold.  According to mobile ad network Chitika, Windows Phone 7 is outnumbered over 100 to 1 by both Android and iPhone, month and a half after its launch.

While MSNBC sounds an optimistic note about the mobile operating system [in the “it’s too early to call it dead – yet” vein], Chitika counted 110 Android impressions and 172 iPhone impressions, for every one Windows Phone 7 impression over the past three weeks since the WP7 launch.  “That number is remaining relatively stable, with very little significant market share growth in WP7,” writes Dan Ruby, Online Insights Research Director at Chitika.

Chitika’s Ruby suggests that, rather than dwell on lackluster adoption rates compared to those of the Droid and iPhone, Microsoft should focus its attention in the arena where it has the upper hand — the corporation. Says Ruby, “Microsoft may do well to position Windows Phone 7 as a BlackBerry nemesis rather than an iPhone/Android killer – the corporate worker’s smartphone of 2011.”