Tuesday 30 August 2011

The phones of the future.... if only we could find the battery of the future

Relinquish if you will ten years previous. A time when all the talk was about the latest skin cover, the latest 2 mega pixel game, the first full colour screen. Battery life seemed to last a life time, although the scope of operations was limited we could still send messages, make calls, play games like Snake and Tetris. Fast forward a century and we are lucky if we get a day out of latest smartphone.

Smartphone usage has grown significantly in recent years, whether your a blackberry user or an Iphone or   HTC user most of us has one or know of a friend who has. We have become a nation obsessed by App's so much so that this has become the biggest selling point of the smartphone, being able to download the latest version of Angry Birds, was not something you could have done ten years ago. Maps and navigation have made the idea of a one fit personal device put the Sat Nav to rest and document options such as writing emails and creating spreadsheets have made the laptop become almost obsolete. 

Yet, whilst the providers are creating the products like there is no tomorrow and mobile phone providers forced to tighten their contracts due to the unforeseen nature of the product itself, limiting the scope of unlimited internet for example has left a huge burden upon operators shoulders such as O2 and Orange. Operators have realised that with the latest smart phones built for the future, they can entice you in with 24 months contract, out are the 12 month deals, with latest version of Android OS and Apple OS available and within easy reach, users can upgrade firmware to keep there phones modern, up to date and trendy with the latest crowd. 

Batteries of yesterday are powering super-computers of today

We live in a technical revolution where everything is powered by our mobile phone; checking emails, checking the weather, checking the latest sports page, reading a book, playing angry birds, checking emails (Blackberry obsessed users take note) the list is endless, yet the batteries have failed to catchup to speeds with what we are doing. Displays have become more powerful, screens suck more juice from our battery (approx 80% of our battery usage comes from the display). 

Whilst the technical revolution of the phone is great, it seems that most people are still frustrated that we can never be too far from a plug socket or a cigarette lighter. Mobile phone manufacturers need to realise that whilst the revolution is necessary, we also need to be able to do more things on the move, for this to happen we need the battery life's to increase.