Features like color screens, Web access and digital photos all sound great until the battery of your mobile phone dies.
Such a scenario may become a reality for most users of top-end phones as current battery technology fails to keep up with the power needed to make all the phone toys work.
"A typical battery gives three hours of talk time. If you add all these multimedia applications and a color screen ?, you would have only one hour of battery life left," Don Macleod, chief operating officer of National Semiconductor, said yesterday.
Chipmaker National Semiconductor should know. They have invested heavily in making batteries that will eventually have five times the power of current models. The problem is that they are scheduled to hit the market only in 2004.
But while major vendors bombard consumers with images of a phone-centered life rich in entertainment and information, the reality is that current batteries just aren't up to the task.
"Sony Ericsson phones deliver two to three hours of talk-time, depending on the model," said Steven Yeh (
WAP, or wireless application protocol, phones can access limited Internet services, such as locating a restaurant or checking what movies are playing. Nokia's public relations company in Taipei confirmed the latest Nokia model with multimedia messaging services can operate for up to two hours under "high usage" conditions.
But power-guzzling full mobile Internet services are not available in most countries yet -- including Taiwan -- so the average mobile phone user may not know that costly new-generation phones may run out of power frustratingly fast. "Consumers are not even aware of the changes in battery technology at the moment," said Ann Liang (
According to analysts, a number of firms are working on battery technology to make sure that when multimedia phones go mainstream, consumers can use them as long as they can use their phones now -- without recharging the battery.
National Semiconductor claims they "will increase battery life to four hours or so for media-rich phones," Macleod said yesterday at an event to launch the company's proprietary PowerWise battery-power-saving technology in Taiwan.
"As mobile handsets become more media intensive, larger batteries and larger [sizes] will inhibit the growth of sales. This is the correct time to introduce this technology as many customers are developing their third-generation handsets," Macleod told the Taipei Times.
Photos drain the juice from batteries
The addition of a digital camera to mobile phones will make the greatest demands on the battery. "The most power-intensive feature is image-capturing," Macleod said.
Traditional mobile phones include chips that manage the amount of power they need. Until now, this technology has had two settings, full-power and standby. National Semiconductor has purportedly incorporated a shifting power supply so that less power is used for less demanding functions, such as talking. In this way less power is wasted.
However, National Semiconductor is very specialized and does not supply all of the parts of the mobile phone system. It will therefore release some of its technology to allow the makers of other mobile system parts to develop their own compatible power-saving components.
RSS