Tag Archives: App report

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AVG’s Top Blogs of 2014

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2014 was a big year for the security industry and a busy one for AVG. There were high profile security breaches, some incredible new apps for our smartphones and huge game releases that pushed the performance of our devices to the limit.

 

Threats:

Heartbleed was arguably the most significant security story of the year after a crucial vulnerability was found in Open SSL, the technology used to encrypt data online. Potentially, OpenSSL estimate that as many as 66% of all websites were vulnerable.

Our blog post on how to stay safe from Heartbleed was our most popular post of the year and a follow up post later in June showing that many websites were still vulnerable comes in at number two.

One of the year’s most prevalent malware breakouts, known as GameOver Zeus was also amongst our top stories. GameOver Zeus picked up a lot of media coverage as experts gave a two week countdown until a massive suspected cyber-attack would be unleashed.

 

Mobile:

AVG had a big year for mobile with exclusive deals to protect Sony Xperia devices and we even created custom apps specifically designed for the Amazon Fire Phone’s ‘Dynamic Perspective’.

We also sealed the acquisition of Location Labs which has brought powerful security and device management features to millions of people.

In November, we release our first ever Android App Performance Report which detailed the secret ways that the apps we use can affect our smartphones. How much space they take up, how much battery they use and how much data they send.

 

Gaming:

Gaming also enjoyed a big year in 2014 with the release of many big name titles including Watch Dogs, where you play a hacker in a beautifully rendered open world. Our performance expert Sandro Villinger’s Ultimate Watch Dogs performance guide for the PC was our third most popular post this year.

Sandro also created a simple nine step guide to maximizing PC gaming performance which helped users of all abilities squeeze the most out their machines whether top of the range or 3 years old!

If you are a gamer, check out Sandro’s Ultimate performance guide to

Gaming looks set to have another big year in 2015, keep an eye out for Sandro’s GTA 5 performance review coming soon!

 

2014 was a great year at AVG and we’re looking forward to bringing you more big stories in 2015.

Happy New Year!

AVG

The secret life of apps revealed

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Have you ever noticed that your smartphone has surprisingly little storage space left for things like photos or even the latest updates? Or that battery life and reliability have begun to deteriorate over time? Or perhaps that your monthly data usage is growing inexplicably? Over time, the apps we love and use day in and day out affect our tablets or phones and impact their performance – sometimes while you’re using them, and sometimes completely invisible in the background.

 

The study

We decided to investigate to see if we could better understand how apps influence devices over time in our first Android App Performance Report.

When it comes to the performance of our phones, we noticed that users care about three things above all else:

  • Storage consumption – how much space do you have left for the files you love?
  • Battery consumption – is your phone making it to the end of the day or not?
  • Data plan consumption – are you constantly hitting your mobile data limit?

 

We felt that in order for the report to reflect what is happening to people’s phones out there in the real world, we needed to use data from real devices. Unlike other tests that might conduct benchmarking in a lab environment it was important to us that these results applied to everyday smartphone users.

 

Methodology

 

So with that in mind, we analyzed anonymized data from over one million AVG Android app users, so that we could better understand which apps they are using and how those apps affect their devices.

Some of the results were quite surprising.

 

Key Findings

 

Pre-installed apps

One of the most interesting learnings we made in the first report is that many devices are still carrying around a lot of apps that were installed by the manufacturer. These can take up a lot of storage space but more importantly can drain battery life – something that is already under strain with the constant use of most smartphones.

 

Apps with background activity

Another thing that became clear was that as we add more apps to our devices, we seldom remove the ones we no longer want or need. Over time this means that the limited resources of our devices are divided over an ever growing number of apps, affecting performance.

The reason for this is simple: the “always on” nature of apps means that they often-times continue to run in the background to check for notifications, updates or download data which uses valuable battery and data.

 

Social and News apps

It will come as little surprise that with its constant background notification checks, which run even when the app is not open, the social networking app from Facebook emerged as having the biggest impact on your mobile device when it comes to overall performance. The constant demand and transmission of data makes the app a real drain on both battery life and data use.

 

 

App growth

As we ran the report over several months, we observed some interesting behavior amongst apps that are automatically updated. Over time, their storage footprint and battery drain both increased. This is mostly due to downloaded content (songs for Spotify, items in games etc.), but is also in part thanks to automatic updates. With automatic updates enabled, developers can push out new versions and features that take up more space and are more resource heavy without having to ask the users permission. Combine this with the steadily growing number of apps we have on our devices (including those that we’ve downloaded and no longer use) and very soon you begin to observe a noticeable dip in performance.

 

What can you do to improve your device performance?

One of the most fundamental issues that the report has raised is that keeping your smartphone running in top condition is quite a labor intensive task. Keeping check of which apps are running in the background and removing apps that you don’t use is more than enough for most of us to commit to.

There are products that are designed to make your life easier though like AVG Cleaner for Android which can show you how much data, storage and battery life each of your apps is consuming to help you take the right actions to tackle any issues.

 

Our full report doesn’t just detail what apps are the most consuming of them all, it also details best practices and helps you get rid of performance hogs on your Android smartphone or tablet.

 

Full Report

Androidâ„¢ is a trademark of Google Inc. in the US and other countries.

AVG

Are You Too Social For Your Smartphone?

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AMSTERDAM and SAN FRANCISCO – November 4, 2014 – Aside from the usual suspects like games and social media, streaming and even pre-installed apps are the most likely to chew your smartphone or tablet battery and storage, according to the latest Android App Performance Report by AVG Technologies N.V. (NYSE: AVG), the online security company™ for 182 million active users.

The Q3 report, based on AVG’s analysis of anonymous data from over one million AVG Android app users, charts the top apps worldwide that affect smartphone and tablet performance in terms of data plan consumption, storage capacity and battery life. With its constant background notification checks, which run even when the app is not open, the social networking app from Facebook emerged as having the biggest impact on your mobile device when it comes to overall performance.

Performance Impact Rank App Name Category Developer
1 Facebook Social Facebook
2 Path Social Path Inc.
3 9GAG – Funny pics and videos Entertainment 9GAG
4 Instagram Social Instagram
5 Spotify Music Music & Audio Spotify Ltd.

 

Social apps were well-represented in the Report with two other social apps, Path and Instagram, making the top five most performance drains. With phone and tablet space at more of a premium than ever, the report also found that real-time news apps featured prominently in the charts. Amongst the list of storage eating apps, the New York Times Breaking News app, which caches the articles accessed through it, was most likely to chew up a device’s storage, ranking higher than Facebook and Spotify. People’s data plans were also likely to be affected by CNN’s Breaking US & World News app and the UK’s Daily Mail app.

“The goal of the Android App Performance Report is to analyze anonymized data to give users the important information they need to make informed choices about what they can do to continue to enjoy their favorite apps while reducing their impact on their device,” said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, Chief Technology Officer, AVG Technologies. “It might not be obvious what Facebook, Instagram, Spotify, 8 Ball Pool and Farm Heroes Saga have in common. But in our tech-centric world, running out of battery or storage space at the moment you need it most is hugely frustrating, and that’s why this degree is insight is vital.”

Some other key findings:

  • Some handset makers are draining their own devices. For example, AVG identified three pre-installed Samsung apps (AllShare Cast Dongle, ChatON, WatchON) in the top 10 list of battery draining apps, excluding games. The Samsung WatchON for video also topped the list for auto-starting battery eating apps due to the visual content the app delivers.
  • Three of the most resource-hungry day-to-day tool apps came from Google, with Google Now/Search, Google Text-to-Speech and Google Translate ranking within the top five. The Chrome Browser for mobile also made the list of top 10 storage eaters.
  • Games significantly reduce battery life. Four of the top 10 battery-chewing games came from game producer King, the company behind the ‘Saga’ series.

 

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About AVG Technologies (NYSE: AVG)

AVG is the online security company providing leading software and services to secure devices, data and people.  AVG has over 182 million active users, as of June 30, 2014, using AVG’s products and services including Internet security, performance optimization, and personal privacy and identity protection. By choosing AVG’s products, users become part of a trusted global community that engages directly with AVG to provide feedback and offer mutual support to other customers.

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

www.avg.com

 

 

Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CTO, AVG Technologies

 

Contacts:

US

Katie Han

Waggener Edstrom for AVG

[email protected]

+ 1 (212) 551 4807

UK

Samantha Woodman

Waggener Edstrom for AVG

[email protected]

+ 44 (0)20 7632 3840

 

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