$120+ Billion in Cash and No Innovation in Battery Technology?

[SomeDudeAsking]

With all that money just sitting around collecting dust, why doesn't Apple use it to bring to market new battery technology that is more advanced than lithium ion? You know, the new battery technology that always seems to be just around the corner like full charges in 5 minutes with 10 times the capacity of lithium ion? The only component Apple seems to spend R&D money on is the A5/A6 processors. You would think they could throw a few billion in R&D money around new battery technology.

[swervinsuburban]

Originally Posted by SomeDudeAsking

With all that money just sitting around collecting dust, why doesn't Apple use it to bring to market new battery technology that is more advanced than lithium ion? You know, the new battery technology that always seems to be just around the corner like full charges in 5 minutes with 10 times the capacity of lithium ion? The only component Apple seems to spend R&D money on is the A5/A6 processors. You would think they could throw a few billion in R&D money around new battery technology.

Why would they, my battery last a day and a half on my 5 using it regularly with LTE always on and being used

[SomeDudeAsking]

Originally Posted by swervinsuburban

Why would they, my battery last a day and a half on my 5 using it regularly with LTE always on and being used

And others drain their iPhone 5 before the day is over because they use it more. I can guarantee you I can drain an iPhone 5 in 3 hours. And others don't want to be a OCD pluggist every night.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by SomeDudeAsking

And others drain their iPhone 5 before the day is over because they use it more. And others don't want to be a OCD pluggist every night.

But the vast majority of people make it a day or even 2 or 3 or more on a single charge. Heck, my iPad goes a week and 20+ hours of use on a charge. There just isn't a big incentive to improve batteries at this point.

I would expect battery innovation to come from the automobile market over the next decade or so.

[lunaoso]

Money doesn't equal innovation. You can't just throw money at something and it will be magically discovered.

[SomeDudeAsking]

Originally Posted by zhenya

But the vast majority of people make it a day or even 2 or 3 or more on a single charge. Heck, my iPad goes a week and 20+ hours of use on a charge. There just isn't a big incentive to improve batteries at this point.

I would expect battery innovation to come from the automobile market over the next decade or so.

What is the source of your statistics? And I can guarantee you your iPad did not have its screen on for 20+ hours on a single charge.

[ucfgrad93]

Since when is it only Apple's responsibility to create a new battery? What about Dell, Samsung, Sony, etc.?

[SomeDudeAsking]

Originally Posted by lunaoso

Money doesn't equal innovation. You can't just throw money at something and it will be magically discovered.

The new battery technology is already discovered, it's just a matter of throwing money at it to make it market ready.

[tymaster50]

someone is a bit sore lol. While battery life leaves a lot to be desired just throwing billions of dollars at it won't make it be discovered. You can't throw money at a caveman and expect him to discover fire. Poor analogy but the point still stands lol

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by SomeDudeAsking

What is the source of your statistics? And I can guarantee you your iPad did not have its screen on for 20+ hours on a single charge.

Where is the source of yours?

You can doubt me, but week in and week out I get between 18 and 25 hours of real usage from my iPad.

[SomeDudeAsking]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

Since when is it only Apple's responsibility to create a new battery? What about Dell, Samsung, Sony, etc.?

The other companies don't have $120+ billion in cash just collecting dust.

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Originally Posted by zhenya

Where is the source of yours?

You can doubt me, but week in and week out I get between 18 and 25 hours of real usage from my iPad.

You tell me your source first.

[itjw]

Because your definition of "innovation" is a pathetically gray area that will never be satisfied.

They could radically change battery tech and you would just complain that 3 days isn't enough... why not 5? Or 7?

The fact is: Apple has no NEED to substantially change anything at this point. There was a 3 week WAIT to even get an iP5 until a month ago... nearly a quarter after launch!

Why on earth would they try and waste more money? So they could sell 23 extra phones to the ubergeeks who are never satisfied anyway?

Nah. Apple is smart enough to realize that no matter what they do people like you will say it's not "innovative" so they don't bother. If there came a time when they were having difficulty selling to the normal segment of society then ya, but that's NOT a problem they are dealing with.

And if it DOES happen, they'll have a big pile of money they didn't waste trying to appease a tiny segment of their base.

It's genius

[SomeDudeAsking]

Originally Posted by itjw

Because your definition of "innovation" is a pathetically gray area that will never be satisfied.

They could radically change battery tech and you would just complain that 3 days isn't enough... why not 5? Or 7?

The fact is: Apple has no NEED to substantially change anything at this point. There was a 3 week WAIT to even get an iP5 until a month ago... nearly a quarter after launch!

Why on earth would they try and waste more money? So they could sell 23 extra phones to the ubergeeks who are never satisfied anyway?

Nah. Apple is smart enough to realize that no matter what they do people like you will say it's not "innovative" so they don't bother. If there came a time when they were having difficulty selling to the normal segment of society then ya, but that's NOT a problem they are dealing with.

And if it DOES happen, they'll have a big pile of money they didn't waste trying to appease a tiny segment of their base.

It's genius

Ah, so you're saying Apple can just stagnate.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by SomeDudeAsking

You tell me your source first.

'Dude' you made the spurious claim first. Common sense tells us that most people do not spend 5+ hours on their phone every day. Knowing that the phone easily gets 5-8hours of use time on a charge, we can reliably infer that most people can make it through the day on a charge. If they couldn't, the forums would be full of people complaining about it - as is the case with the Nexus 4, for example.

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Originally Posted by SomeDudeAsking

Ah, so you're saying Apple can just stagnate.

No, you are saying that. There is NO business case to be made for spending a lot of money on better battery tech right now. Just because you don't like the answer doesn't make it wrong.

[meistervu]

Originally Posted by tymaster50

You can't throw money at a caveman and expect him to discover fire. Poor analogy but the point still stands lol

Don't be ridiculous: what would a caveman do with money

[SomeDudeAsking]

Originally Posted by zhenya

'Dude' you made the spurious claim first. Common sense tells us that most people do not spend 5+ hours on their phone every day. Knowing that the phone easily gets 5-8hours of use time on a charge, we can reliably infer that most people can make it through the day on a charge. If they couldn't, the forums would be full of people complaining about it - as is the case with the Nexus 4, for example.

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No, you are saying that. There is NO business case to be made for spending a lot of money on better battery tech right now. Just because you don't like the answer doesn't make it wrong.

If you haven't noticed, we DO have a lot of threads on here about poor battery life on the iPhone 5.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by SomeDudeAsking

If you haven't noticed, we DO have a lot of threads on here about poor battery life on the iPhone 5.

And the overwhelming response in every one of them is that if you can't make it through the day you are either using it for 5-8 hours OR something is wrong.

[SomeDudeAsking]

Originally Posted by zhenya

And the overwhelming response in every one of them is that if you can't make it through the day you are either using it for 5-8 hours OR something is wrong.

Ah, so your answer is to blame the user for using his iPhone.

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by SomeDudeAsking

Ah, so your answer is to blame the user for using his iPhone.

I honestly don't know how you draw the conclusions you do. Either you're trolling or you are mentally handicapped. I'm sorry in either case. Describing to people the technical limitations of their device (which happen to be among the best in the industry) is not ascribing blame. People who fall outside of those limitations are on the ends of the bell curve, not the majority, which is why there is little business incentive. Kapeesh?

[SomeDudeAsking]

Originally Posted by zhenya

I honestly don't know how you draw the conclusions you do. Either you're trolling or you are mentally handicapped. I'm sorry in either case. Describing to people the technical limitations of their device (which happen to be among the best in the industry) is not ascribing blame. People who fall outside of those limitations are on the ends of the bell curve, not the majority, which is why there is little business incentive. Kapeesh?

You said that "you are either using it for 5-8 hours" and thus is blaming the user for actually using his iPhone for more than mere texting. I am not the ends of the bell curve. There are many people even on here who complain about the poor battery life of the iPhone 5. And if you actually do any real gaming on your iPhone, it won't make even through the after noon.

[rmhop81]

Originally Posted by SomeDudeAsking

Ah, so your answer is to blame the user for using his iPhone.

The more you use your device the more the battery gets drained lol.

People use the devices differently so it's not an even comparison......

Of all the complaints I hear about 9 and 10 iPads purchased to get the perfect one....I have a hard time believing what most complain about.

I get great battery life on my iPhone 5 and mini. The mini gets around 10-12 hours screen time

[zhenya]

Originally Posted by SomeDudeAsking

You said that "you are either using it for 5-8 hours" and thus is blaming the user for actually using his iPhone for more than mere texting. I am not the ends of the bell curve. There are many people even on here who complain about the poor battery life of the iPhone 5. And if you actually do any real gaming on your iPhone, it won't make even through the after noon.

5-8 hours is both the technical limitation and among the best available. If that's not enough for you then yes, you are at the tail of the curve, otherwise companies would still be building thicker phones so that most people could make it through the day.

Fwiw, your very presence in a forum such as this one is a strong indicator that you are not an average user in at least some ways.

[Amplelink]

OP, if money could increase battery longevity, do you not think that would've been done by now? Do you not think there are many, many, many companies in the world focused on battery innovation?

Hey, I have an idea, OP. Since Apple has so much cash, why don't they just use a bit of it to cure cancer and solve global warming. And why not figure out who killed JFK while they're at it.

[swervinsuburban]

People are just feeding this troll,starve him.

[corvus32]

I think the fact that we have an iPhone with twice the pixels and several times the processing power of the original yet still has all day battery life and then some is pretty innovative.

I was thinking about this today. The iPhone 5 has nearly the same processing power as the original Macbook Air, but fits in your pocket, weighs about as much as a deck of cards, and lasts a day or two on a single charge. That's pretty amazing, and I think we're only a generation or two away from having Core 2 Duo performance in an iphone, but I guess some people still want MOAR!