Method and apparatus for controlling a storage device

A mass storage device such as a disk drive or SSD (solid state drive) employs optimization logic for reduced power consumption in a host personal electronic device that identifies and prioritizes performance and power trade-offs by considering user expectations, user presence and application responsiveness. The storage device receives commands and information from the host device indicative of user expectations about application invocation, data freshness, and usage patterns, and determines a operational state indicative of behavior settings for reducing power consumption while maintaining the performance constraints required by the user expectations. The granularity of performance considerations communicated from the host device to the mass storage device is expanded to permit the storage device to determine, based on performance constraints from user expectations, appropriate and specific power reduction measures for maintaining the user experience.