We all know that battery life is an important aspect of portable gadgets, especially for mobiles and tablets. However, the hardware manufacturers are not the only people responsible for maximizing your smartphone or tablet's battery life. The user and app developers are equally accountable as well.
On the user's part, it is their responsibility to charge the device properly (avoiding overcharging if this is applicable), turn WiFi off if not in use, adjust the brightness level appropriately and kill apps running in the background.
For app developers, it is their responsibility to ensure that their apps are battery efficient. Yulal Ariav, an Israeli entrepreneur and developer says that "Battery related issues are the number 3 reason for people to uninstall an application (after malware and app with too many ads). Also, 7.5% of all reviews associated with app removal are due to the app being too power-hungry." He also analysed the apps by category and discovered that apps in the personalization, tools and productivity category are the apps which are most battery hungry.
However, as an app developer, it is not always easy to build battery efficient apps because the built-in Android SDK only gives you the ability to analyze CPU usage, whereas there are other important factors involved in draining your device's battery power. The full spectrum of battery usage analysis including GPS, Proximity, Orientation, Gyro sensors, wake lock time and many others can be provided by a free tool called Dr. Power. Developed by the guys from Tawkon, Dr. Power shows the breakdown of each component within the app, in percentages and absolute numbers (mA) allowing developers to easily track their app's battery usage over time.
Dr. Power also allows you to mimic the specific situation where an end user of the app notices battery drainage, and also notes down the phone model. This way, developers can collect feedback to make their apps more battery efficient for all scenarios on all devices. There has been feedback regarding the app saying that "it is helping us discover and pin point the exact modules which have been causing some battery consumption issues in an easy and simple way", so there is absolutely no excuse for developers to ignore making their apps battery hungry anymore.
The next time you notice that you're phone is battery hungry, check your settings and kill unrelated apps. If your'e an app developer, install Dr. Power to monitor the components eating up the battery and strive to make your app consume the least amount of battery it needs to function well. This way we will make the portable gadget world a more battery efficient place.