The iAd network is designed to give advertisers access to the millions of individuals around the world who own an iPhone or an iPod Touch and is said to combine “the emotion of TV advertising with the interactivity of internet advertising” by allowing in-app, interactive adverts to be displayed on devices.

This will of course pitch Apple squarely against Google in the mobile advertising sphere and specifically create something of a high-noon standoff between Quattro Wireless, the mobile ad network Apple bought a few months ago and AdMob, the mobile advertising network Google acquired for an eye-watering $750m.

In a further complication, Apple recently changed their terms of service to prohibit any application developer from using an ad network associated with a company that distributes mobile operating systems, a rather roundabout way of saying “you won’t be using AdMob thank you very much”.

Apple claims to have $60m of media booked already, which they say represents almost 50% of the total mobile advertising spend in the US for the second half of 2010. Let the battle commence!

The survey was conducted over 92 million ad impressions and showed that in overall terms, mobile users are roughly half as likely to click on an ad than non-mobile users. The average click-through rate for iPhone users followed in the survey was a rather poor 0.30%, compared to an average of 0.8% for non-mobile users. Palm users demonstrated at CTR of almost 1%.

The view from Chitika (and it’s one we share) is that mobile users are generally unreceptive to ads as they are usually looking for quick answers to a question, looking for directions or a phone number, rather than being in a ‘browse’ mode. Perhaps there’s also something to be said of the intrusiveness of ads in the iPhone’s otherwise pure and controlled interface?

Whatever the case, it makes for an intriguing outlook, especially given the enthusiasm with which mobile advertising is being pushed by ad networks, agencies and advertisers large and small.