Advertising munches one quarter of mobile phone battery power
Advertising received on mobile phones causes an increase in the consumption of energy, according to a new report.
Adverts on mobile devices on average consume 65% of an app's communication energy and 23% of an app's total energy demands, according to an April 2013 report. The report, published by Microsoft Research in association with UC Berkeley, looked at the energy consumption of popular apps on Android and Windows phones. It found that a typical mobile app refreshes its ads every 12 to 20 seconds, which forces the radio network to be constantly reawakened. After reawakening, an app will keep its 3G radio connection open for another 25 seconds. This period, known as 'tail time', results in the high energy overhead incurred by ads. Commented Till Faida, co-founder and managing director of Adblock Plus: 'The use of in-app advertising has enabled the production of free apps for many people's enjoyment, but we have to consider the impact this is having on battery drain. Smartphones are advancing everyday, but unfortunately their batteries are not developing as fast. Many consumers are blaming their phone for poor battery performance when it is the advertising that is at fault.' According to a uSwitch survey, each smartphone user owns an average of 29 apps but only pays for one in 10. Most apps consequently rely on targeted advertising, resulting not just in an invasion of personal privacy, but also in draining the life from our phones. Adblock Plus aims to find a balance between an ad-free mobile experience and one where application developers can sustain themselves with
The company stated it endorses an Acceptable Ads policy, which gives users the choice to permit advertising that is responsible and not annoying. In this way, users can support apps and websites that rely on advertising but that choose to do it in a non-intrusive or non-burdensome way.
