With the release of Pokemon Go (and no, this isn't a PoGo thread), people are going to seriously consider battery life as a a major consideration to their phones. One report (http://mashable.com/2016/07/07/pokem.../#pnNwsOXQNkqJ) had the game burn through an Iphone 6s's battery in 3 hours playing "the game". That's from full to 0% in 3 hours. For comparison, Apple rates HD playback for this device is rated at 11 hours (http://www.apple.com/iphone-6s/specs/). This, along with my own observations of using my Nexus 6 with Google Cardboard at a family outing shows:
1. Applications like PoGo are going to cause a decreased lifespan in batteries that in as early as a few months, and will trigger an upswing in premature phone deaths just in time for Xmas 2016...
2. The capability of the phones are far surpassing the ability of the battery to keep up;
3. People are coming up with new ways to use the capabilities of phones, in ways they are not honestly designed for, and this will only get worse;
4. If the idea of a phone lasting two years is going to hold up (as many are purchased on a two year model), battery capacity needs to become a bigger focus than "make it thin".
Additionally, I suspect that battery death is one of the major drivers of new phone adoption. Yes, the ability to recharge a phone faster is great, but the more cycles you put on the phone, the faster the battery degrades. If you can't dribble charge your phone overnight and have a full day's use out of it on a HEAVY day, then the battery isn't correctly sized. More to the point, if a phone can't go for TWO days or more with normal use, it isn't a good choice. I personally believe that major phone manufacturers are designing their systems with the intention that the battery will become a factor triggering the replacement of phones at this point, which is why there are so few phones with replaceable batteries now. Applications like Pokemon Go will simply trigger people to realize just how imbalanced the battery vs. capability spread has become, and may start asking for something different.
Thoughts?
1. Applications like PoGo are going to cause a decreased lifespan in batteries that in as early as a few months, and will trigger an upswing in premature phone deaths just in time for Xmas 2016...
2. The capability of the phones are far surpassing the ability of the battery to keep up;
3. People are coming up with new ways to use the capabilities of phones, in ways they are not honestly designed for, and this will only get worse;
4. If the idea of a phone lasting two years is going to hold up (as many are purchased on a two year model), battery capacity needs to become a bigger focus than "make it thin".
Additionally, I suspect that battery death is one of the major drivers of new phone adoption. Yes, the ability to recharge a phone faster is great, but the more cycles you put on the phone, the faster the battery degrades. If you can't dribble charge your phone overnight and have a full day's use out of it on a HEAVY day, then the battery isn't correctly sized. More to the point, if a phone can't go for TWO days or more with normal use, it isn't a good choice. I personally believe that major phone manufacturers are designing their systems with the intention that the battery will become a factor triggering the replacement of phones at this point, which is why there are so few phones with replaceable batteries now. Applications like Pokemon Go will simply trigger people to realize just how imbalanced the battery vs. capability spread has become, and may start asking for something different.
Thoughts?
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