Some interesting statistics on smartphone battery life:
JD Power’s survey says only 8% of smartphone users are satisfied with their battery life:
Only 6.6% of Japanese smartphone users are completely satisfied with their phone battery life, with more than 65% dissatisfied:
http://whatjapanthinks.com/2011/02/15/battery-dissatisfaction-high-amongst-smartphone-users/
80% of Nokia customers in China dissatisfied with battery life of their device:
http://www.batterycategory.com/blog/2010/12/08/battery-life-of-consumer-dissatisfaction/
41% of Apple 3G customers indicate short battery life as their primary compliant; could “antenna-gate” be causing a distraction with battery satisfaction with iPhone 4?
http://www.reliablesmartphone.com/are-clients-satisfied-with-the-iphone-4-2/
Battery life in phones can be increased with:
- A higher capacity battery (larger, heavier, more costly batteries…probably a non-starter for most)
- Smaller displays (lower resolution and/or size…probably another non-starter)
- More power-efficient processors. However, with increasing processing needs of applications, along with consumer desire for a larger processor speed number on the outside of the box…can this really happen, and in what timeline?
- DPO…which also works with VEE to give you much better display viewability in a QuickLogic CSSP. No real size or weight penalties, continued use of off-the-shelf displays in larger form factors, no 24 month development cycles…
Does anyone really believe that power demands are going to lessen? 4G antenna’s consume more power than 3G, displays continue to grow, processors are getting faster with dual or even quad-cores….where is the inflection point where OEM’s finally stop and do something to fix this issue? Moreover…when do consumers actually stand up and say enough?
