Mobile advertising is sucking the life out of phone batteries, according to advertisement barring tool Adblock Plus.

The company says people must consider the impact that in-app advertising is having on their mobile battery, as although the devices are rapidly developing, the batteries are not.

Adblock Plus says advertising received on mobile phones causes an increase in the consumption of energy, with ads on average consuming 65% of an app’s communication energy, and 23% of an app’s total energy demands.

Bosses at Adblock Plus said according to an April 2013 report published by Microsoft Research in association with UC Berkeley, which looked at the energy consumption of popular apps on Android and Windows phones, researchers found that a typical mobile app refreshes its ads every 12-120 seconds. This forces the radio network to be constantly re-awakened, after which the 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.

‘Draining’ the Battery Life

Co-founder and managing director of Adblock Plus, Till Faida, said each smartphone user owns an average of 29 apps but only pays for one in 10, according to the findings of a uSwitch survey. Faida said most apps consequently rely on targeted advertising, resulting not just in an invasion of personal privacy, but also in draining the life from peoples’ phones.

“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,” Faida said.

“Smartphones are advancing everyday; 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.”

Adblock Plus aims to find a balance between an ad-free mobile experience and one where application developers can sustain themselves without imposing an undue burden on the consumer or their mobile phones.

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