An ABI Research report predicts there will be eight
billion mobile devices in use worldwide by 2019, but adds that power storage
and charging technology has not kept up. That could be about to change.
“Short battery life remains the biggest irritation to
smartphone users and is a clear opportunity for handset vendors and carriers to
improve the user experience by adopting new, longer-lasting battery
technologies,” Nick Spencer of ABI Research told Campus Technology.
“Additionally, the growth in size-constrained wearable devices makes the
problem even more acute.”
Silicon stores 10 times more lithium than the graphite,
used in rechargeable batteries, but also tends to crack and become unusable.
Researchers in the United States are also finding success
using coatings made of germanium and pure lithium to increase storage and
charging capabilities.
“The battery-charging market beyond wired Micro-USB
chargers is also ripe for change with multidevice inductive charging mats
reducing in price and integrating into public environments like cafes and
airports; a bit like Wi-Fi,” according to the ABI report. “More subtle forms of
charging may also be made possible like ambient radio-frequency energy
harvesting and even dedicated beamed radio-frequency energy routed to your
device.”
Researchers in Singapore are working on a battery that
can be recharged up to 70% in just two minutes and can last more than 20 years,
according to a report in Teleread. The batteries replace the graphite used in traditional
lithium-ion batters with a gel made from titanium dioxide.
