There are millions of users around the world that download free apps for their smart phones from the respective online app stores such as App Store and Google Play. But have you pondered what comes as a drawback with those free apps that you download 24-7.
Researchers from Purdue University and Microsoft Research have conducted a study on free apps using a special tool to monitor how much energy they consume when they are being used.
One way for developers to earn the money from their free apps is advertising. Since they cannot receive any cash against those apps on every “download” they use third party systems to display ads. That one factor drains as much as 75% of smart phone’s battery merely to power up the advertisements.
Abhinav Pathak who is the report author says that developers must think twice before using the third party systems for placing advertisements in apps, also, they should take energy optimization matter seriously.
Abhinav Pathak’s team studies Angry Birds and Facebook on Android as the part of their report. Due to restrictions posed by Apple on its iOS, the platform didn’t allow researchers to run tests.
In the case of Rovio’s Angry Birds the researchers found that only 20% of battery life was consumed to play the actual game. Of the rest, 45% was used to locate your position in order to target the ads.
An industry expert commented that such case cannot be avoided if users want to enjoy the free apps. However, developers can consider bringing this factor down to some extent.
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