In the near future, Apple is in the process of developing a battery technology which would allow devices such as the iPad and iPhone to have extended battery life to last days or even weeks. Unexpectedly, the physical aspects of the battery would be smaller and lighter.
The technology is said to use hydrogen fuel cells that converts oxygen and hydrogen into water, heat and electricity. The hydrogen fuel cells isn’t a new technology and have been used by Honda powered cars. Honda has found numerous issues with the technology, such as making it portable and cost effective which from a smartphone and portable device perspective is highly important.
Recently, Apple Inc. filed 2 patents to the US Patent & Trademark Office relating to battery improvements. One of the patent dubbed, ‘Fuel Cell System coupled to a Portable computing device’ could be a solution to the cost effective and portability issue. In a brief detail of the patent it describes it as, “provides power to and receiving power from a rechargeable battery in a portable computing device. This eliminates the need for a bulk and heavy battery within the fuel cell system, which can significantly reduce the size, weight and cost of the fuel cell system.”
If the technology/solution does work, Apple believes it could improve battery life of their products by up to ‘days or even weeks’ without recharging. It is quite hard to believe with the recent iPhone 4/S iOS 5 issue where battery life performance has dropped considerably. In most cases, with minimum usage such as leaving your iphone turned on during an 8 hour sleep, 20% of the battery life has been drained. Still with the latest December 16th iOS 5 update, the battery issue has not been fixed.
If Apple’s latest research and development does succeed, it will likely improve the demand for Apple products.
