Researchers have looked more closely than ever before into everyday mobile device habits
Scrapping automatically-playing videos in apps and reversing trends of instant messaging and on-demand services could be key to cutting the growing energy demand of the Internet. Researchers looking more closely than ever before into everyday mobile device habits - and in particular the impact smartphone and tablet apps have on data demand - are suggesting ways that society can cut back on its digital energy consumption. European smartphone data growth is relentless, with data traffic predicted to rise from 1.2GB to 6.5GB a month per person. Although precise energy estimates are difficult, and depend on the service and network conditions, for video streaming each gigabyte of data can be estimated to consume 200 watt-hours of energy through Internet infrastructure and datacentres. Following a detailed study on Android device users, and comparing observations with a large dataset of almost 400 UK and Ireland mobile devices, computer scientists at Lancaster University and the University of Cambridge identified four categories of data-hungry services - watching video, social networking, communications and listening. These four categories equate to around half of mobile data demand. Watching videos (21 per cent of daily aggregate mobile data demand) and listening to music (11 per cent) are identified as the two most data-intensive activities.
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