Yahoo CEO predicts demise of Apple's iAd mobile ad network

Bartz spoke with Reuters about the direction her company is taking, as Yahoo looks to increase its advertising revenue from its search business. In addition, the company is looking toward the growing mobile advertising market, where it hopes to compete with Google and Apple.

In the interview, Bartz took the opportunity to comment on Apple's newly launched iAd mobile ad network, which debuted in July. The Yahoo CEO predicted that Apple will fail because advertisers won't cooperate with the iPhone maker's policies.

"That's going to fall apart for them," Bartz reportedly said of iAd. "Advertisers are not going to have that type of control over them. Apple wants total control over those ads."

Bartz's comments likely stem from comments made by advertisers to The Wall Street Journal in August. Early customers of iAd were said to be experiencing delays in launching their advertisements because Apple has "kept tight control on the creative aspects of ad-making, something advertisers aren't used to."

The report indicated that mobile ads took about eight to 10 weeks to launch, which is much longer than the timeframe for other mobile ads. But Apple has taken such control because it believes the richly interactive ad experiences, which provide essentially an "app within an app," will provide a superior experience when compared to other services, which force users to leave the application and launch a browser.

However, some early adopters to iAd — including Nissan and Unilver — have painted a positive picture of Apple's fledgling service. Advertisers indicated that users are five times more likely to select Apple's interactive advertisements than they are a traditional online display ad.