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Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

theverge.com

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Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#21

Post by bsphil »

untog wrote: post #13
dlikhten wrote: post #2

If you are not paying for the product, you are paying in other ways, this just puts a number on it. If you consider the implications, you are paying quite a bit in power in addition to privacy issues. This is why: a) my gps AND network location is turned off 99.99% of the time. b) I have ad-blocking software which prevents lots of this network overhead. ^^ the above is justified because it actually costs me, want to…

If you are not paying for the product, you are paying in other ways I have ad-blocking software Excuse me while I put on my devil's advocate pants... so, you're using the apps without paying, and cheating the developer out of profit?

God yes. Putting ads next to something small and clickable is really irritating. My biggest problem is when there is no paid version of the app without ads. Even after blocking them, I'm still left with a bar of precious, unused screen space.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#22

Post by mdwrigh2 »

untog wrote: post #20
mdwrigh2 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't need it to be OS-level. When an app with ads turns on, just have it grab a whole bunch of potential ads and cache them in some shared data store (e.g. a Content Provider). I imagine that the harder part is grabbing the right ads so that you have something relevant to show. There's also some concern about leaking ad information, but I'm not sure how much advertisers care about that.

You don't need it to be OS-level. When an app with ads turns on, just have it grab a whole bunch of potential ads and cache them in some shared data store That alone would require it to be OS-level, at least on iOS (AFAIK).

You could probably do this with some cleverness using Keychain or a custom URL scheme that an app with ads will only respond to if they have some ads cached. I'm not 100% certain on this though as I've done very little with iOS.

On Android this is obviously much easier. Just use a content provider as I mentioned above.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#23

Post by dminor »

mcritz wrote: post #3

I'm surprised that the ad sevices aren't smarter. Wait until on wifi, cache a bunch of ads, share those ads amongst all the apps that use your service. Is this feasible?

It seems like it would make daily budgets trickier since not all ads would be shown, and not necessarily on the same day they were served.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#24

Post by obtu »

brudgers wrote: post #6
mcritz wrote: post #3

I'm surprised that the ad sevices aren't smarter. Wait until on wifi, cache a bunch of ads, share those ads amongst all the apps that use your service. Is this feasible?

I'm not. There is no incentive for better energy utilization. [edit] for advertizement driven software. Energy efficiency is something which goes to the bottom line of handset manufacturers. That this research comes from Microsoft, not Google, shows how different the incentives in regards to energy management are for the two companies' mobile OS's.[/edit] [edit 2]It also illustrates the problem of the commons inheren…

Android has a “where did my battery go” UI to provide that incentive.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#25

Post by j_baker »

This test was run on a Nexus One, which was released in 2010. I'd be curious to see if they got the same results on a newer phone. I'd be willing to bet that this is mostly because ads require more network requests, which aren't as efficient on newer phones.

Something smells of a researcher cherry-picking a result that shows off their tool's results in the best possible light. I suppose I don't have any way to prove that, but I have to ask why the researcher didn't try the test on another phone.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#26

Post by j_baker »

majani wrote: post #14

Could someone in ad tech please explain to me: is ad software's inefficiency with power and load times a necessary evil, or is it some gross incompetence from leaders in the field?

I suspect it's neither. It's probably more that advertisers just don't care if their ads use up too much power. Probably the same reason why there are so many annoying Flash ads.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#27

Post by beatle »

angersock wrote: post #19

So, obviously, the solution here is to have tighter integration of ad platforms with the underlying system, perhaps an ads repo that installed applications can access and which is optimized for power use. Or, you know, you could charge for your applications and stop putting ads in altogether. It will be a dark day, my friends, when there is kernel support for advertisements.

the ad services (Google, etc.) doesn't care about your phone's battery life as long as they can serve their ads. They don't get anything in return if they spend time and resources making their ads "more efficient". These companies don't care about the user experience or providing a better product. They're in the ads business not in the making-a-better-phone business.

as far as they're concerned your phone's battery life is a hardware/OS issue.

sad but true.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#28

Post by megablast »

beatle wrote: post #27
angersock wrote: post #19

So, obviously, the solution here is to have tighter integration of ad platforms with the underlying system, perhaps an ads repo that installed applications can access and which is optimized for power use. Or, you know, you could charge for your applications and stop putting ads in altogether. It will be a dark day, my friends, when there is kernel support for advertisements.

the ad services (Google, etc.) doesn't care about your phone's battery life as long as they can serve their ads. They don't get anything in return if they spend time and resources making their ads "more efficient". These companies don't care about the user experience or providing a better product. They're in the ads business not in the making-a-better-phone business. as far as they're concerned your phone's battery l…

Google certainly has an interest in extending android battery life, you would be silly to suggest anything else.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#29

Post by orbitingpluto »

If an Android app requires location services and that isn't integral to the functionality of the app, then it's bad design on the dev's part.

It's easy enough to get decent fill rates for advertisements without latex-gloving user privacy and wasting battery life.

Re: Without ads, Android apps could be more than twice as power-efficient

#30

Post by hahainternet »

I'm so frustrated that this is on the BBC, on The Verge, it's everywhere. It is TOTAL NONSENSE.

I don't even need to comment much, if you read the original research you will quickly discover just how poor this paper is. They haven't remotely correctly characterised it and a holistic approach would show the ridiculousness of the claims.

People are too busy to read a few pages though, but not too busy to write a bunch of crap and try and get ad impressions.

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