Smartphone apps that are offered for free to customers, and funded by advertising within the app could have a hidden cost for the users – in the form of much faster battery drain.
Analysis by Purdue University, USA of Android and Windows Phone based devices found that as much as three-quarters of the power drain by a mobile app could be put down to the in-app adverts.
Report author Abhinav Pathak said that app developers need to be more aware of the energy drain that 3rd-party plug-ins such as advertising or usage analytic can generate.
In the case of one hugely popular app, the Angry Birds game, their research suggested that only a fifth of the energy consumption was devoted to playing the game itself. Nearly half wen to the location based tracker that is need to serve localized adverts.
The researchers were able to monitor the battery drain by modifying the handsets then running the apps on them. It was not possible to test Apple iPhone due to OS restrictions.
