Recently we had an opportunity to speak with Steven Lin, the Product Marketing Manager at Intel Corporation about Intel® Security Battery Optimizer

Please share with us the backstory of what motivated you to create this app.

In 2015, Intel® Security (formerly McAfee) announced a campaign “Life beyond Security" and began exploring the opportunity to expand its product offering beyond antivirus and anti-theft security and protection. It is common knowledge that mobile users are increasingly relying on their mobile devices for resource intense activities, such as online video streaming, mobile gaming, shopping, and social networking. What do these things have in common? These activities are battery draining. That is why we are motivated to guide mobile users to extend battery life. Since then, we have iterated on the product based on user feedback making the app more versatile with a delightful experience for both new and existing users. Intel® Security Battery Optimizer has evolved beyond battery life optimization. It allows Android smartphone and tablet users to boost speed and performance by cleaning up memory and storage as well as recommending how to track mobile data usage – in one simple, easy to use app.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of the creation of this app?

Giving users a simple way to get more out of their phones and tablets for an enhanced and optimized mobile experience.

What is the coolest or most innovative feature of your app?

Through cloud analysis, we are able to tell users how much time they can save by closing an app. The most innovative aspect is that as soon as users download and run an app on their device, we can immediately assess the battery life impact and how much time they can save by stopping the app if it continues to run in the background.

How did you decide which platforms to release your app on and do you plan on releasing your app to other platforms?

We wanted to gauge response to this app based on need and available audience, which is Android right now. We are investigating other platforms now, even non-mobile operating systems.

What surprised you most in your journey to create this app?

Through cloud analysis, we have learned that apps can have a really drastic impact on the battery life and overall performance of a device. Big data analysis is critical and we can in turn provide relevant advice to users.

What features do you hope to roll out to your app in the future?

We continue to focus on making the app more intelligent and personalized based on individual usage patterns. For example: when a user is in the car versus what functions are required when the user is at home.

Which other mobile apps or technology have inspired you?

The key inspiration that has led us to the path of “Life beyond Secure" is to enable users to have a simple experience in managing their devices, be it battery life conservation or managing space to store their photos and videos. Additionally, our inspiration has been real world scenarios like a user getting on an important call only to find the device battery is about to run out. It's immensely satisfying to see users use the one-tap solution we provide to extend device battery life while they're live on the call to help prevent such a situation.

Do you have any recommendations or advice for others wanting to create a mobile app?

Early prototypes and usability studies can go a long way in saving overall time in the app development life cycle.

For more information, visit: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mcafee.batteryoptimizer