[mcritz]

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?

[brudgers]

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 inherent in the app model. Lots of contact with the ad server is great for each app and poor for overall energy efficiency.[/edit 2]

[mdwrigh2]

I mean, there are incentives. If a battery lasts longer, a user will spend more time in apps, which leads to more ad views.

Whether the ad companies are measuring and paying attention to this is a different matter.

[obtu]

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

[fluidcruft]

Well, if only I could tell them that I don't give a shit about dating sites or finding! singles! in! my! area!

[GFischer]

At least I do get a relevant ad (for a DirecTV promotion, I don't have cable).

But seeing it 100.000 times is NOT going to make me purchase it.

[untog]

Feasible in a centralised, OS-level ad system, yes. iAds may do it, I have no idea. But most ad systems are embedded at the app level, so when that app is turned off, no downloading can take place.

[mdwrigh2]

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.

[dminor]

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.

[mistercow]

It should be. But until there's some competitive pressure for them to do that, they won't.