After the promise of Apple’s iAds helped to soften the potential blow of Google’s growing Android influence, it looks like iAds hasn’t been able to follow through on all the hype. Apple’s mobile advertising platform is suffering from some control issues on Apple’s end, which is apparently stifling some creativity from the marketers’ perspectives. Reports today reveal the slowed completion process of early advertisers utilizing iAds, resulting in only a handful of campaigns actually coming to fruition.

The 8-10 week process, longer than expected for most mobile ads, has been an obstacle for these early advertisers, which include Citigroup, Disney and J.C. Penney Co., which has high hopes for campaigning around the back-t-school season. Unilever and Nissan are the only of the 17 launch partners that have been able to roll out iAds campaigns for the better part of July.

In Apple’s defense (as well as the creatives behind these campaigns), iAds is a new advertising platform for the mobile industry. Some of its allure lies in its points of integration, which promise to leverage several aspects of mobile computing, search and recommendations. It’s not entirely surprising that marketers have had delays around the process, which is surly labor intensive. But the Wall Street Journal cites Patrick Moorhead, director of mobile platforms at DraftFCB, who notes the issues with having Apple involved in the “creative mix.”

Too much of a watchful parent? The problems around Apple’s controling methods have been a sore spot for the company on several occassions, even as it brings a level of uniformity and security to the use of its devices and platforms. The Wall Street Journal goes on to note that at least one early advertiser has already dropped iAds all together.

These particular growing pains aren’t reflective of the mobile advertising industry overall, however. eMarketer reports an expected increase of 43% from 2009 to this year, growing from $416 million to an estimated $593 million in revenue sold.

While Apple may not have been quite ready for the expectations placed upon its mobile advertising platform, Google’s been prepping its mobile initiatives with the acquisition of AdMob, its Android platform and previous experience in advertising. Millennial Media has also proven to be a top ad network in the mobile arena, reporting rapid growth in the past year alone.

The success of Millennial Media has demonstrated the rising interest in mobile advertising, noting the various opportunities for marketing around growing verticals. Last month Millennial Media released a report outlining particular demographics to watch, including entertainment and sports sectors, and non-white Black and Hispanic groups. This is an interesting perspective for advertisers to consider for cross-device marketing, especially as Blacks with broadband access continue to grow, even as broadband access plateaus.

For mobile in particular, the print media industry is highly interested in advertising opportunities around the growing sector. They’re beginning to see increases in ad revenue for their digital media fronts, as Bert noted in an earlier post, and this has been largely encouraging for publishers and mobile advertisers alike.

The trend is further validated by Rupert Murdoch’s recent decision to take News Corp. digital, with plans for a full-on mobile subscription model to revive business in this regard. The largest benefit around mobile advertising is the ability to help consumers solve their problems, making for more direct targeting methods and leveraging opportunities around other apps and physical locations. Groupon is an excellent example of solution-based, target marketing. In all, it’s quite evident that the burgeoning mobile industry is being supplanted by advertising growth, spurring business interests on multiple levels.