10 Minutes Charge Time

Apparently SOFTBANK is offering a phone in Japan that can produce a full day's charge in 10 minutes of charge time. This is something I've been wanting for a long time. When I talk to friends and family about it, I call it a turbocharge.

The fact is that no smartphone I've used since Blackberry has been able to get me through a day without running out of battery. I used to use smartphones where you could access the battery and I would carry a spare one with me during the day. I stopped that a few phones ago and now I just look for charges everywhere I go. I've gotten good at asking bartenders, receptionists, and baristas for charges.

If a ten minute charge could take my battery from almost dead to completely charged, I could get through the day with one ten minute charge and that would be a godsend for me.

I know I can use a Mophie or some other form of external battery. I've tried them as well. But I prefer the "find a charge during the day" approach. I just wish it was a turbocharge. Maybe it will be soon.

#mobile

Comments (Archived):

  1. Benedict Evans

    FWIW, when I went to MWC in Barcelona this year I took a 3G iPad mini and turned off data on my iPhone, using it just for calls. At the end of each day walking around the halls and meeting people, the Mini, after constant use, was still at 20-30% and the iPhone was at 80-90%.Tablet batteries last much longer than smartphones, and phones, if they’re just used as phones, last for days. Maybe that’s one solution.

    1. fredwilson

      won’t fit in my front pants pocket though!happy to see my favorite blogger in the AVC comments πŸ™‚

      1. Avi Deitcher

        “Favourite blogger”? @Benedict, what’s your blog site?

          1. Avi Deitcher

            It is, indeed. I like the data leading to analysis and then thinking about what we know and what we don’t. Just followed on Twitter. Thank you.

        1. JamesHRH

          Ben has the goods Avi – you will enjoy but you will never get thru all the links that arrive on Sundays.

          1. Avi Deitcher

            I already call Sunday “Mougayarday”.

      2. kidmercury

        phablets. large enough for a bigger battery, small enough to fit in the front pocket.

        1. JimHirshfield

          Radioactive enough to shrink your genitals.

          1. JamesHRH

            Historical anecdote or speculation? πŸ˜‰

          2. JimHirshfield

            Hahaha. 100% speculation.

          3. ShanaC

            being glad I am not male in this discussion. And that women’s clothing tends to have a terrible pockets.

        2. jason wright

          you got one?

          1. kidmercury

            phablet? for sure. don’t leave home without it! although i am tempted to go to nexus 4, but i won’t. going to upgrade to galaxy note III in february.

      3. jason wright

        get some new pants, or a handbag, or a hamster packing a usb wheel.didn’t gg invest in a battery recharging bag thing?

      4. someone

        but who wants to carry an extra device to compensate for the lousy battery life of the other?

      5. Matt A. Myers

        I personally don’t think batteries/EMF emitters are great to have on the body, e.g. in any pocket, in bra (I see a lot of women doing this.. the breast tissue is extremely sensitive which is why breast cancer is one of the more common cancers)

        1. ShanaC

          there are so many unknowns in in breast cancer

    2. jason wright

      so a ‘cellular’ version of the ipad mini allows voice calls, like it’s a phone? i didn’t know this. i though it was only capable of data transfer over a mobile network…(?)

      1. Benedict Evans

        No, internet only. But voice calls aren’t what kill the battery – it’s using the internet all day.

        1. jason wright

          thanks. i misread your post. in too much of a hurry.

  2. Avi Deitcher

    Battery is a major issue. Phones get smaller, screens get more powerful, screens and wireless get used more often, it is actually amazing to me that each generation of Samsung or iPhone actually has ~the same battery life as the previous!I think there is huge opportunity in one of:1. Significantly improved battery technology (not a chemist, I don’t know what it is)2. On-the-go charging, whether some form of kinetic or wireless3. An air-charged battery? Think John Galt (but that is probably SciFi)4. Wireless contact (inductive) charging. This is probably most likely, and already making some headway.Did you see the article on Korea putting chargers under some roads, so the vehicle charges as you drive? http://www.forbes.com/sites

    1. someone

      OEMs know that customers squeal in the store when the device is thin and light. that sells phones. small-screen phones like the fruit company would need to be significantly thicker to have better battery life. they just won’t do it. only 5″ screen phones like the LG G2, Droid Maxx, and Galaxy Note (and upcoming Lumia 1520) have enough surface area to make a big battery in a thin chassis. so if you want your phone to last a long time, get a bigger screen.

      1. Avi Deitcher

        Does it make up for it? What is the additional life from an additional 1mmx1mm of battery vs the reduction in life from an additional 1x1mm of screen?

        1. someone

          compare battery life of moto x and droid maxx. basically the same internals, difference is that maxx has larger screen & battery. claims double the battery life. most reviews concur.(btw, I own neither of these phones)

          1. Avi Deitcher

            Double? Well, I guess once you have everything else in there, any additional size is 100% taken up by battery, so you get a lot of power.I think I should get in the battery business and out of the consulting business or software business…

          2. someone

            moto claims 24h for X, 48h for Maxx. the maxx is about an ounce heavier and a bit thicker though the X is actually thicker in the middle. if they made the moto x thicker it could probably get the same battery life as the maxx, but then it wouldn’t sell because we are all addicted to thin/light phones. until they run out of juice

  3. William Mougayar

    There’s another emerging technology using magnetic resonance from existing wi-fi networks that will power your device while it’s in your pocket. Cota demonstrated this at the last TecCrunch Disrupt http://www.ossiainc.com/

    1. Avi Deitcher

      Cool!

  4. Rohan

    Have you tried rechargeable phone covers? They make the phone slightly heavy but add up to an extra 70%. I know of a few people who swear by it…

    1. fredwilson

      that’s a mophie that i referenced in the post

      1. Rohan

        Ahhh! Sorry – didn’t know that was what they were called.Learn something every day.. hehe. Good day Fred and all!

    2. kidmercury

      see last paragraph

      1. Rohan

        Yup! Thanks kid.. didn’t know they were called Mophies. πŸ™‚

  5. Julien

    Where’s Moore’s law for batteries?

  6. Guest

    saw this on george takei’s facebook page yesterday

    1. JimHirshfield

      Star Trek nerd alert.

    2. vruz

      Nobody ever told Mr Sulu to put their tricorders down, so don’t let them tell us we put our smartphones down.We’re their elders, after all!

    3. Nick Ambrose

      That’s awesome πŸ™‚ hahahaa

    4. sigmaalgebra

      I know that gossip is really importantto girls, but the one on the right hasmuch better things to do than gossip!

    5. ShanaC

      true. always true

    6. Joe Wilkinson

      Funny. But then what’s the point of having a having a computer in your pocket you don’t use?

  7. andyswan

    Totally hear ya but also kinda love it when phone dead.

    1. panterosa,

      That’s like keeping almost dead batteries for the noisy obnoxious toys my kid got, which drove me mad. That trick saved me in the toddler years.

  8. Abdallah Al-Hakim

    This is a continuing problem for smart phones and I can’t wait for a workable solution. It is interesting how battery life affects people’s daily habit. The other day at work, an intern was staying late (past 7PM at work) because she wanted to charge her phone before heading out to meet her friends. I found it funny that these devices that are meant to help us in our daily lives are actually running our daily lives πŸ™‚

  9. jason wright

    phone battery power trading app required.

  10. Allen Lau

    I carry this with me all the time. It is a 5200mAh external battery, which is good enough to fully charge my smartphone more than once (but not quite twice). Cable is extra. Bought it on eBay for $2. The total package is very small. I can put it in my back pocket if my computer bag is not with me.Saved my life numerous times.

    1. William Mougayar

      Did u say $2? It’s tough to make up the name. do u have a link or device name? Cable came with it?

      1. dineshn72

        I would be careful batteries from these no name brands exploding. Especially if you are carrying them in your pockets πŸ˜‰

      2. Allen Lau

        My friend bought one and he loves it. I just bought one too. It costs about $20.http://www.ebay.ca/itm/5200…P.S. When I said $2, I was referring to the cable, not the battery.

    2. takingpitches

      $2? Wow – let me stick a few in my briefcase

    3. Allen Lau

      Sorry, the cable costs $2, not the whole package. The battery was a gift from a friend so I don’t know exactly how much. That said, I bought 1400mAh batteries on eBay for $4 before. My guess for this particular battery would be $10-$15.BTW, I just bought this wireless router / wireless repeater / 5200 mAh on eBay for $20. It is also very small.

    4. fredwilson

      i carry one like that made by Mophie. but yours looks better/smaller

  11. Fernando Gutierrez

    I still carry a second battery. It’s not optimal but it’s not a great problem.I would like phone manufacturers to launch some models with bigger batteries. I believe it is a feature that can make a lot of difference. The last decent one I found was the Motorola Razor Maxx, which had a much bigger battery than all the other high end smartphones when it was launched. After that most of them have similar batteries.

  12. FlavioGomes

    A rare problem for me… Often in the car. Habitual pluggin to charger.

    1. FlavioGomes

      Which leads me to the idea of you retro fitting your vespa/scooter/2 wheeler with a 12 volt port?

  13. Semil Shah

    The mobile battery problem is holding back a whole new wave of “always-on” mobile apps that grab location and passively provide value from the background. People say the shift will come in 2-3 years (or so I hear) when the batteries shift from Lithium ions to electron-based. There’s a company in San Jose called Quantamscape that’s supposedly working on this.

  14. William Mougayar

    Have you seen these mobile charging lockers? There’s one at Communitech in Waterloo I used the other day. I felt so free for an hour while it was charging.

    1. Matt A. Myers

      Jackpot if a criminal has a quick way to open these. ;)Most criminals are lazy though, so wouldn’t actually have to worry.

      1. William Mougayar

        it’s inside the common area.

        1. Matt A. Myers

          So it’d be a hacker that’d do it? πŸ˜‰

  15. someone

    Droid maxx = problem solved. or LG G2, if you’re not on Verizon.small-screen phones just don’t cut it w/r/t battery. no one wants to make them thick enough to have sufficient capacity.

  16. Tracey Jackson

    I know you want it in a phone and you probably know about this. But if not it has saved my life especially when traveling, or during the day. It takes it to a %100 faster than anything I have tried. http://www.callpod.com/prod

    1. William Mougayar

      Tracey! that’s geeky gear. I’m impressed.My only mobile re-chargeable place is the USB in the car.

      1. awaldstein

        what’s a car?

        1. Tracey Jackson

          What you use when there are no Citibikes left to rent. Guess I called that one wrong huh???

          1. awaldstein

            Car = Zip Cars

          2. Tracey Jackson

            Cars = F Train

          3. awaldstein

            ;)When things all break story.Needed a zip car for an hour the other day.Neighborhood was blocked off so couldn’t return it to the garage.Can’t leave in other zip car garages as they don’t have the ekey and can’t move them.Can’t park in garages as attendants can’t move them.Off street parking–what’s that?Had to run for a plane.Just stopped, called and said, You’re Problem and moved on.Cool business but fraying at the logistic seams.

          4. Tracey Jackson

            At that point I would Uber. At many points I Uber. πŸ™‚

          5. LE

            “Just stopped, called and said, You’re Problem and moved on.”Totally what I would have done. Make the other party the “owner of the aggravation”.

          6. awaldstein

            Yup…Zip Cars is quite amazing and breaking at the seams.Mostly it works perfectly.Weird logistic breakdowns like this past weekend where most every EasyPass on Zip Cars stopped working. I discovered it when I was trying to go through the mid town tunnel. Wait 20 minutes. A million honking cars. No cash in my pocket.I truly love NYC!

        2. William Mougayar

          Oh you must live in NY? It’s got 4 wheels and consumes electricity.

          1. Matt A. Myers

            Most consume oil at the moment..

          2. William Mougayar

            i was being futuristic. by the time arnold gets one, they’ll all be electric πŸ™‚

          3. Matt A. Myers

            Hehe. Well, that’s within ~10 years..

        3. Richard Carlow

          4 wheel thing, well subsidised. Better when made in Germany.

        4. LE

          Did you see that story about what happened to the guy and his family on the west side highway? Scary stuff. Can’t wait to see what the NYPD army does on that one. I guess crowd control and all those cams doesn’t operate well on packs of motorcycles.

          1. awaldstein

            missed that one.if you have a link share. can always use another scary nightmare!

          2. Tracey Jackson

            Count me in on that.

          3. LE

            This one is from today and with the guy who was run over by the guy trying to get away. The story yesterday didn’t focus on that and was more upsetting (since there was no perp only what happened to the victims)http://nypost.com/2013/10/0…I couldn’t even watch the entire video.Ok here is the story from yesterday:http://nypost.com/2013/09/3…This is not a harley crowd it appears to be younger kids on “ninja” bikes.Thinking of how I would have handled it two things come to mind.I would have swerved my car from side to side so I couldn’t be surrounded by the cycles. (Cops do this to slow traffic down.)I would have run my car on the rims if I needed to if the tires were blow.You can’t outrun cycles with a car.

      2. Tracey Jackson

        Awesome I have geeky gear. I actually have quite a bit, some of which I don’t know how to use.These are amazing though. So fast and you can hook up multiple devices. It also works in the car. But you and your wife can be charging at the same time. There is also one I use for travel that charges up to nine devices simultaneously. The single one has been on back order for a year. That’s the end of my infomercial.

        1. William Mougayar

          LOL.

  17. pointsnfigures

    This is such a big issue there is a company in Chicago producing phone chargers for bars. It holds 6-8 phones securely inside a locked metal box, and you pay with the swipe of a credit card. It’s like a safe. And of course, it’s too hard to search through my Instagram pictures so I can post a photo of it.

    1. LE

      Bad seo on this one. I had to break a sweat to even find this:http://mashable.com/2012/01…….which is this:http://brightboxcharge.com/…Brightbox is a stupid great[1] name for this. (Not to mention if you are using “bright” you also need “brite” as an obvious typo).[1] Actually I just started to deal with a large company that supplies the hotel industry and might want to acquire this company. Hmm.

    2. fredwilson

      i love that

  18. markslater

    BB battery life was amazing…..thats because it wasn’t doing anything smart…..

    1. fredwilson

      true

  19. muratcannoyan

    I’ve been impressed with the LG G2 charge time. My G2 performs even better than these test results. About 25% in 30 minutes. http://alturl.com/4ykw4

  20. William Mougayar

    In the age of 6 second Vines, we want everything fast.

    1. Mac

      πŸ™‚

    2. Matt A. Myers

      Hilarious because true..

    3. vruz

      Has Twitter sold Vine to Yahoo??????:-P

      1. ShanaC

        maybe….

  21. Richard Carlow

    As a softbank customer (for a few more days), let me assure you the battery may well be charged quickly, but with the poor reception and the number of dropped calls you would likely curse it. Softbank is painful.

  22. Matt Candler

    Amen, Fred. I’m an electric motorcycle builder at night and think our relationship with our mobile tech is going to be more and more about the access we have to juice. And battery capacity is only part of that equation. Access to juice. Cost of all the stuff we charge. Going to be interesting.

  23. vruz

    I think there may be a time not too distant in the future when somebody will come up with a water powered phone.https://grandst.com/p/i-h2go

  24. Elie Seidman

    The technology seems to exist – at least in laptop size. The Lenovo Thinkpad X1 charges to 80% of its capacity in 30 minutes. (I don’t think the last 20% is linear) I don’t know the size of the X1 battery but I’d assume that the proportional math means about 10 minutes, or fewer, for a cell phone size battery.

  25. Richard

    There is nothing SMART about how the APPlE UX of shutting down apps that are inadvertantly running in the background. Batter Life is inversely correlated with your data charges.

    1. Dale Allyn

      Agree about the Apple UX for shutting down background apps. It’s improved in iOS 7, but there should be a “kill all” gesture.

  26. Guest

    It’s the battle of Moore’s Law (exponential) v’s Battery Law (Linear).Solutions: Borrow more (from hardware (e.g. M7 Chip), optimized software), or from Baristas.Edit: Graphics barphed in Disqus

  27. Kate Huyett

    Small tip to help you charge faster (though not turbocharge): put the phone on airplane mode while it’s plugged in.

    1. Andrew Kennedy

      interesting. how much faster would you estimate?

    2. Matt A. Myers

      Just so no one “patents” this idea – could have it so it auto-moves into Airplane mode when the charging connector is attached / when charging is occurring. Various obvious ways this could be done.

    3. ShanaC

      actually, keeping the radio off in general helps with battery

  28. baba12

    What is interesting to me bout this post and the comments thus far is that battery life and charge time are important to people. There are solutions that seem to be interesting and possibly resolve the issue at hand though clumsily as it may be.Fred (Mr.Wilson) nor the people reading and commenting here comprehend the problem at hand. Fred’s VC firm USV won’t look at a company that maybe working on batteries that hold a long charge and are slim as well. The folks who read the comment posts see software as a fix for problems and maybe for many things it is possible to have php, ruby on rails, javascript and possibly a esoteric set of C based algorithms to provide a service/product with the desired network effect for a USV, Y -combinator, angellist ec groups of wealth enclaves to fund and get wealthier. But to solve problems that involve batteries that have longer charge and can be made to fit inside a trouser pocket requires more that the light weight stuff of a web service.Material sciences have come a long way but there is tons more to figure out.There are few avenues open to funding for the research and development into such areas. We have a dysfunctional group of folks in Congress representing a select group of nincompoops unfortunately they have number gather together and have decided to basically go back to being neanderthals.NSF budget for fiscal year 2014 is slated to be $7 Billion but more likely it will get slashed. I don’t expect VC’s to invest in R&D or fundamental research but if the velocity and volume of the noise around tech startups is pretty high there is a notion that private enterprise will fund and solve these problems.I’d hope that people understand the complexity of things like battery chemistries. I don’t see silicon valley investing in the next HP or Fairchild etc. Even the likes of Sequoia Capital that very early on in its life funded companies in the semiconductor industries, but lately it seems that the culture o investing is all about quick rewards, which means invest in ideas that can be sold to one of the companies they have relationships with already, since the size of investments in these web services companies is very small you can fund a few hundred at a time and possibly get a return on investment that is worth it. But companies working on batteries need a longer gestation time and more often than not the research hits a roadblock or to results that are not profitable but that is the work in research.If the Government can’t fund such things then how will Fred and many of us get to have batteries that are slim and hold a charge for longer hours. Do you think the dysfunctional family in congress is capable of correcting itself, if not will the USV’s and Fred raise the awareness around why it is important to have R&D monies for the sciences be a priority for the U.S. going forward.

    1. Richard Carlow

      If you had a new battery today for a cell phone, it would take a year before it came to market. If you were lucky. Yes, it takes time, yes it is coming. It takes considerably more than just the material science or the safety testing.

    2. Matt A. Myers

      It’s connected to efficiency, about reducing friction – towards making it easier to focus on what you actually want to be focusing on.Many people are addicted to efficiency, and they don’t know how to slow down – so these become or feel like major inconveniences.It can definitely be a sign you’re too busy, or maybe you’re busy enough in a healthy way – and then this is an efficiency that would add further ease to living.

    3. LE

      If the Government can’t fund such things then how will Fred and many of us get to have batteries that are slim and hold a charge for longer hours.This is a major problem? Is this a front burner issue? Resources should be diverted so that people who don’t want to carry an extra battery can talk longer on their cell phones and handle more deal flow?There is a very workable viable solution to the “problem” of talking longer on your cell phone.Battery research can certainly have benefits in many areas (as it already has).But I don’t think using as an example a VC whose phone runs out and doesn’t want to be slightly inconvenienced using a morphie is the best way to support that point. (Could also use another phone for talk only (say a cheap flip) and keep the smartphone for pretty much everything else.)

      1. baba12

        Im not saying the issue around battery use is a front burner issue, nor do I expect monies to be allocated to resolve such issues.You did not get the gist of what I was stating ( my fault), what I am stating involves the funding of R&D in areas that VC’s won’t invest in for one.I was stating that for batteries that are longer lasting while having a small factor and being light requires and has required for research in many areas and a lot of that research was funded by governments. My point has and is about a society having the capacity to fund fundamental research that benefits society most of the time.

  29. danhimes

    This post brings up an essential question for VC/entrepreneur types: how did iphone beat blackberry?Seriously. Think back a moment. You could use the BB with one hand (remember the wheel they had?), had great reception, and the battery lasted all day. With the iphone, you now needed two hands, it has never worked very well for voice, and the battery runs out quickly (plus it’s very fragile).For people whose professional livelihood depends on the phone it seems like a clear win for BB.But look what happened? People flocked to the iphone, willing to put up with all of its flaws, and the abusive relationship with Apple (for its what— cool? sexiness?) and BB is circling the drain.How do you manage such a threat if you are BB? What do you tell entrepreneurs? Satisfying your customers’ “wants” is more important than satisfying their “needs?” Yikes!

    1. Fernando Gutierrez

      It is true that early BBs had a great battery life, but that disappeared when they started packing them with more features. My BB Bold didn’t last a full day and I guess that the current models with tactile screens don’t either.

    2. LE

      (for its what— cool? sexiness?)Cool and sexy sells niche luxury products. By the time you get up into Apple territory with sales of the iphone you have a product that is desired by the masses and the thing that sustains it is no longer that it’s just “cool and sexy”. This is not halo and secondary meaning this is the real deal.I’ve been using all sorts of computers (since punchtape). Apple products are the best machines (of any type not just computers) I have ever owned and operated (and I’ve operated lots of machinery).flocked to the iphone, willing to put up with all of its flawsThey fixed all those flaws.How do you manage such a threat if you are BB?You can’t. Because Apple has the “a team” of designers and strategists and product people. You’re not going to take a high school and college team and be the Yankees either. You’re not going to take Philadelphia and make it New York City. Not going to happen.

      1. danhimes

        Apple territory wasn’t Apple territory until the iphone. There were a few folks who favored their computer products (designer types mostly), and their ipods were a great product, but the iphone really tipped the scale for the masses.Your response is interesting because whatever Apple did to you (let’s call it ‘love’) is exactly what I’m talking about. I’ve also been using computers since the 1970s. I’ve owned several macs, dating to the mac plus.But I also remember their issues, including (circa iphone release) running hot, case fragility, and so on. There are things you can point to that are best-in-class, but I never recall thinking “oh these are the best” th ’90s. I like them, I just don’t think they are worth the premium. But I’m not a designer- more of a linux nerd (and there is justification for them anyway with folks like me).Remember those red LED watches that came out- introduced IIRC in a James Bond movie? The grumble then was (aside from cost) that it now takes two hands to tell time. Digital watches really took off mainstream with the LCD technology.I thought the same thing when I first saw the iphone- cool, but really? Of course, now I own one.But my main response to you is that by saying there is nothing BB could have done, because it was ‘Apple,’ is really just avoiding the hard question.

        1. LE

          See I’m not primary a computer guy or a computer nerd or a programmer. I’m someone who uses computers to do things. I don’t tinker and toy with them that much (nor do I with cameras or anything else) for the joy of tinkering. I use them to produce something. But I can and did take a unix system in 1985, buy it, unbox it, hook it up (10 terminals) and write some software for it to do something. (Same time as mac plus which I also had driving a typesetting machine).Apple was not adopted by the masses because the masses bought on price (and apple hardware is expensive) and don’t value (in mass) the advantage to not getting aggravated with windows. And of course most importantly the software they needed wasn’t on mac osx. All those corporate IT departments.I remember the led watches. My dad had one. It was cool.As far as “hard question” I think Clint Eastwood character in one of his movies said it best “a man has to know his limitations” or something like that.whatever Apple did to you (let’s call it ‘love’) is exactly what I’m talking about.Same as Playboy messed me up but who is complaining!

        2. Michael Rattner

          Most nerds view Apple, and for that matter, luxury products through the completely wrong lens. We grew up with a Lamborghini Countach on the wall and read the last few pages in Motor Trend comparing 0-60 times of all the cars. And so when we compare smartphones and computers we do the same thing. Even when we’re looking at design, we’re spec based. But the best designs are something different. Typically they have good specs, but they’ve also put that last 10% of hard effort into user interaction or the art of the device.In the car world, nerds like the 370z, the corvette, that GTR and at the high end, the Mclaren because at any given price point, one of these cars will stomp their competitors. But what do most non nerds love? Astons and Mercedes and even Civics or Corollas – cars that trade performance for something else and achieve a different type of quality that can’t be described by numbers.And Apple, more than any other company, nails those intangibles. Some things are the materials used in making an iPhone, which gives it the feel of a high end watch. Same with their computers. Similarly they managed to get the response time of the touch sensitivity of the iphone screen to be half that of android. While it’s almost subliminal, it makes for a much smoother interface.So how do you become Apple? It is of course a ton of luck and timing. But it’s also paying an insane amount of attention to the details that don’t merely increase the specs. Love it or hate it, there is probably no phone, certainly not a blackberry, that has the polish of an iphone.Quality is not, however Vertu, which is just lipstick on a pig and always has been. And that’s what most of the critics wrongly accuse Apple of doing. It’s what the American car companies were doing for years while MB, BMW, and Audi as well as the Japanese were doing real design.

          1. danhimes

            Indeed- it’s in the way the {whatever: car, razor, phone} responds to you, the user. I think that is indeed the point. That’s why we fall in love after all, right? People are willing to forsake their marriages and risk their careers and families for that response.

    3. JoshGrot

      This is a good and interesting question. I suspect that it had something to do with the fact that the iPhone wasn’t initially targeting the same audience and/or use case as the BB and that it had a groundswell of flanker brand support from its iMac and iPod, not to mention Jobs, etc. And once it took hold in the consumer zeitgeist and established network effects via its unique app store, it had assembled many of the tools necessary to penetrate the business market. In this sense, the iPhone (and arguably the iPad) were examples of classic Christensen “disruption” to the business phone/PDA market (which rarely happens with established companies): to your point, BB must have felt it was doing many of the right things at the time and didn’t see the iPhone coming.

    4. ShanaC

      blackberry didn’t do consumer things. Good pictures, easy to read emails.

    5. fredwilson

      third party apps. a phone vs a platform. the best phone in the world can’t beat a platform.

      1. falicon

        Yes – in the long run, software eats the world (and that includes hardware).

  30. Akira Hirai

    It’s only a matter of time before phones can go a week between charges. Not that this helps you today…

    1. Mordy Kaplinsky

      nah. OS makers will learn from Microsoft and just bulk up to take advantage of the new power capabilities and limit any real gains.

  31. Dale Allyn

    Maybe the solution will come from here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/t…Over air charging is an interesting area of research.

  32. Ian Smith

    This is of course an Apple user problem. I can drop a spare battery into my Galaxy and be and and running again in under a minute.

    1. LE

      Not really it’s a design tradeoff.My car doesn’t have a spare tire it has an inflation thingy in case of an emergency. To put in a spare tire (even a small donut) would require compromises that the designers feel will detract from more important features and selling points..Apple is weighing how many “Fred Wilsons” are out there vs. people who don’t mind the morphie type devices or other solutions. It’s obviously something they have given plenty of thought and strategy to. This wasn’t an “oops”.The macbook air as another example doesn’t come with a dvd drive. Same situation if you want to play a dvd hook up an external dvd player. In exchange you get a small lightweight form factor which is a major plus (I own two mb airs and also two of the full size laptops with dvd drives and can attest to the benefit of the small and lighter weight). Ditto on newer macs with replacing batteries (need to remove screws). Other machines? Snap out the battery easily. But the apple is a better design (which benefits every day) and the need to replace batteries is an infrequent need.) All of this makes total sense with me.

      1. kidmercury

        lol this is what i love about apple fanboys…….so blind to the painfully obvious truth. it’s not a design tradeoff. it’s an apple protectionist thing.

        1. LE

          Doesn’t bother me at all if you think that is the case. For every time the world “gets one” on me I get 10 things on the world.By the way where are all your balls when it comes to throwing shit at Fred for his biased perspective on what is in his best interest? Why do you have such a problem with people or companies acting in their self interest. As if people actually care about that stuff like you do?Businesses exist to make money.

          1. kidmercury

            sure, but whoever i pay better serve me. if you want to be apple’s slave that’s your business — i’ll be here, grateful for the chuckle.i disagree with fred routinely, though i don’t blame him for using his blog to promote his own companies. i’d lose respect for him if he didn’t. not sure what your point is.

          2. LE

            “Disagree” with Fred is not the same as using “fighting” words like:”lol””apple fanboys””so blind to the painfully obvious truth””apple protectionist”and of course”apple’s slave”..obviously intended to get a rise out of people.By the way I hear that there is an entire culture in India that uses and supports “slaves”. I know Indian families here that refer to their workers as “slaves” or “I’ll get another slave”.Word matter so stop acting like they don’t.

          3. kidmercury

            i know words matter and i choose mine carefully. i use what you describe as “fighting words” with everyone on this blog. i’m familiar with the definition of slavery, as well as its ongoing practice in today’s world, inside and outside of apple. i actually think the entire human species is basically a slave species that serves an extraterrestrial/interdimensional force (at least until we liberate ourselves, which i think is coming sooner than many expect).again not really sure what your point is, though i agree with the random statements you seem to be making here.

          4. Matt A. Myers

            Words used as a device to gain attention, deriving their charge from emotion impact of words that don’t particularly hold any specific truths – leading them to getting most of their support from those who are most unable to differentiate, separate, the emotional aspect from the logic of what is being said. You need to connect to logic deeply for learning, and teaching – and with emotions breaking logical thinking, you’ll be unable to teach and learn as well, or at minimum the most you’re passing is emotional understanding and feeling, which usually comes with personal projections. e.g. When you’re angry, you can’t think logically – and so when using or depending on emotionally charged words, the logic can’t be as strong, as deep.If you didn’t use emotionally charged words, I wonder what your responses would look like – I am guessing they’d be more detailed, in depth, and help people learn more. It takes time to learn the language for the nuances I am sure you know exist, and nuances come from working in other existing realities into the story, into the thought.Theories without grounded proof or assumptions applied to certain realities, doesn’t really allow for as much room for navigating the physical world and the truths it holds.It’s certainly a possibility there’s an advanced alien species influencing or directing our behaviours, though right now it doesn’t really seem like an option.I have some theories too, though is my imagination at this point, for non-malicious reasons as to why other non-Earth species could be wanting to speed up our technological innovation – mainly relating to weapons and pollution – or could even be to help us reach a peaceful state. Who knows for sure, though technology helps lead us to a more peaceful, healthy place – assuming politics and governance evolves likewise – which people are working towards.I say non-malicious because I don’t believe a violent alien species could survive or be unchallenged by other peaceful aliens. Perhaps even then this influence on us, if it exists, would allow us to create technologies on our own – to bring us up to speed – to be able to protect ourselves from actual threats or violent species. I could see this being a more likely possibility with our current understanding and experiences of patterns of how colonization of other cultures goes, which was able to happen because of advanced technologies – lead to many other problems – so if you can allow it to happen in a more natural way, then it will be smoother, less friction – more fluid. I could imagine an advanced alien species would understand leading metrics, and could know what technology needs to be be discovered first, what sciences need to be found, in order to to reach a certain destination or evolutionary point, path — or really, it could all just happen because our brain is structured to lead us to experiment with the world around us, and we have vivid imaginations to see endless possibilities. The tough part can be to ground that imagination in the reality of truths.

          5. kidmercury

            this response is way too long for me to read carefully, though i can say i use emotionally charged words because people remember how you make them feel but they don’t remember the information you provide. i’ve dropped countless links here in fredland supporting kookology and other subjects, though that is not remembered; what is remembered is the emotional impact of my flaming. kooks wouldn’t flame if people could engage us in intellectual discussions. though admittedly i flame apple not because of kookology, but because apple is so silly.as for aliens that subject is too deep to discuss at length here, though i base my viewpoints largely on the writings of jim marrs (among others, but he’s a good starting point). marrs’ book “rule by secrecy” is a kook classic, filled with tons of documented history, and some educated history based on these guesses.

          6. Matt A. Myers

            So they remember YOU as a self-proclaimed kook, but nothing of the substance of your topics which is how you actually have the majority of people – at least the people you need to convince – believing the topics you’re promoting.You have to build trust with people first before they’ll start researching topics you have interest in. Emotionally charged words don’t do that, not for people who can differentiate a words’ meaning from its possible emotional attachments..

          7. kidmercury

            they’re not going to believe it anyway. if they were open, they would have already believed it — and not because of me, because of countless others, and because of the internet. they need a fundamentally different approach, probably involving economic hardship. in the mean time, i’ll help them remember, and get a few laughs.

          8. Matt A. Myers

            I think your efforts could be more efficient if done differently.. but okay.

          9. kidmercury

            are you going to believe any of it? are you even going to look any of it up? that illustrates my point right there.

          10. Matt A. Myers

            *sigh* You haven’t put anything logical to follow or with links that I could possibly follow. You need to paint a clear picture from some beginning point in order for people to start to understand – and without emotionally charged phrases in them.

          11. falicon

            “people remember how you make them feel but they don’t remember the information you provide”Possibly the most brilliant (and accurate) thing I’ve ever read on AVC…and that’s saying something for sure!

    2. Sean Hull

      Agreed this is one thing iphones have always been missing. Samsung I’ll give you one point! πŸ˜›

  33. Brad

    Japan has another advantage, they have a lot more towers than we do. So their phones are not constantly searching for a place to get a signal. When I lived there I had a phone that would last almost a week on a charge. It was 14 years ago, but at the same time the phones in the states would last 1-2 days. I need to ask some of my friends if their Iphones actually last longer now.

    1. Richard Carlow

      iPhone will not last to 4 pm. If you are on softbank, even finding a tower does not mean the call won’t just cut off. iPhone was originally only available on Softbank…

      1. Brad

        That is interesting. When I am in Japan, I seem to always have a good signal.

        1. Richard Carlow

          On softbank? I drop calls in the heart of Tokyo and Osaka. From my living room near Kobe, I have to stand at the window to call…it’s not just me either. Colleagues walked away from contracts as the dropped calls were costing them money.

          1. Brad

            I believe when I am there it pops up on DoCoMo. I have ATT in the states and so it just picks up whichever company has the best signal.

          2. Richard Carlow

            NTT is the gold standard. No doubt no troubles.

  34. sfrancis

    seriously a new trent charger (carries 10+ iphone charges) is a great accessory – I carry one of those instead of a laptop power supply in my bag. Everyone has laptop power supplies. No need to go scrounging to charge my phone.

  35. knowledgenotebook

    Another possible solution (maybe on the horizon) is remote electricity charge, which would eliminate the charger for phone and adapter for laptop hassle altogether…

  36. Arlen

    It seems to me that batteries have seen the least disruption/improvement over the last 20 years.

    1. ShanaC

      chemistry is an old science. And that is all that batteries are, chemistry

    2. kidmercury

      aw c’mon now. remember, we don’t walk around with this anymore: http://applenapps.com/wp-co…partially because of improvments in battery size and energy density of batteries.

  37. Tom Labus

    Someone figure out how they can charge themselves.

    1. Matt A. Myers

      People are working on that.

  38. cfrerebeau

    That would definitely be great. I used to manage my battery manually when I had an iPhone by going in airplane mode in the train for instance (I noticed looking for signal take a lot of resources). Now that I use an Android, I use an application to optimize power consumption for me. It’s not perfect but I have not (so far) run out of battery at the end of the day.

  39. ShanaC

    well, I will say this: whoever solves the batter problem will probably get a nobel prize in chemistry. This is an ongoing problem for centuries in chemistry/physics.

  40. Loren Heiman

    The engadget article says its 2600mah battery provides 3 days of use. Therefore 1 day of charge only requires about 1/3 of that, or about 850mah. An iPad/Galaxy Note charges at 2A which would theoretically provide 850mah in about 25 mins. To do it in 10 mins, the battery would theoretically need to accept approximately 5A. That’s definitely a lot of current but sounds very doable.

  41. Ana Milicevic

    I switched to the Galaxy S4 recently and although the camera is pretty spectacular the biggest upgrade has been the battery life — I can now get through a full day and well into the night on any charge over 90% with heavy data/texting usage and moderate calls (say two 1hr calls and several shorter ones throughout the day). Compared to the S3 and the iPhone that both need juice seemingly constantly this is a massive improvement.Looks like I now need the supercharge more for my laptop than for my smartphones.

    1. someone

      shhh, don’t tell the Macolytes! let them curse their batteries…

  42. 070

    This kind of turbocharge as it is called in the article is on the one hand a quite unique and lucrative business idea but on the other hand people will get even more addicted to their mobile phones. Generally itΒ΄s a pity of the society that mobile phones, surfing in the internet wherever you are and always be able to be reached

  43. Matthew Ball

    You should try the Razr Maxx HD (I have the 2012 model). Fairly close to stock Android, but with a truly unbelievable battery life. I often eek out 2+ days despite heavy usage. Even with extensive hotspotting I can crack a day easily.I’d love a thinner phone or more bleeding edge specs, but I’ve since realized that nothing has a greater impact on my experience than the fact I can use it without the fear that I soon won’t be able to.

    1. fredwilson

      #notetoself

  44. William Mougayar

    Speaking of batteries, apparently that is the biggest stumbling block to wearable computing devices, http://www.citeworld.com/co

  45. Pete Griffiths

    My experience has been that the new release of iOS has killed my battery life.Anyone else with the same experience?

  46. LaMarEstaba

    I just got my Everpurse and I really love it. Wireless charging and a place to put my keys? Excellent. everpurse.comI bought it when I used to DC and my battery would die after a day out in the steel jungle and 44 minute subway rides each way. For me, at least, using Everpurse is as easy as putting my phone away and tossing my purse down when I come home (onto the white charging mat).

  47. Michael Travis Guadamuz

    I believe that Softbank will be successful because they innovating technology that will suit everyones need and demand. people rely on their phone so much that if they could innovate the phones to last all day with out dying the Demand would sky rocket.

  48. jason wright

    where’s the pied piper this woeful wednesday morning? out of juice?i need my daily fix of wisdom and insight.

  49. Bill

    A large part of the battery drain issue is what the phone actually does internally (in the case of BBRY, nearly 1/10th of an other “smartphone”) and how many frequency bands it needs to operate on. Less is either or both and the battery does not need to be so large, and [sans] smart-charging technology – the charge time for a day’s worth is substantially less. Having the wifi, bluetooth, 700MHz, 850MHz, AWS or PCS band chips all working at the same time – it’s a miracle we all get more than 30 min’s worth of of a charge. Turning off wifi/bluetooth goes a long way to help… Contactless, all-present and solar charging options are next.-Bill

  50. Eran Galperin

    One of the great things about Android, is that if you know what you’re doing you can really stretch the battery life quite long. I’m using a Galaxy S2 that is almost 2 years old, yet the battery can still last almost 4 days on a single charge. Heavier users will get different millage, and GPS still sucks the life out of it, but it can be done (see screenshot).Here’s the setup -* Cyanogenmod 10.1.2 * Juice defender ultimate (the paid version)* Running the battery calibration app (requires root) + full battery cycle (go all the way to 0 charge and back to a full charge).Hopefully this will some day the default Android setup so it’s not only available to power users. If the hardware has the capability, it doesn’t make sense to not use it

  51. GraehamF

    I would much rather have better battery life, but I’ll take better charging until that happens.Thanks for the inspiration, this motivated some ideas >> “Power Cubby” – the Redbox for Phone Charging.http://graehamf.blogspot.co

  52. panterosa,

    I saw that. So cool. Though it made me wonder if my phone would explode. From excitement.

  53. Cam MacRae

    There’s a lot of work being done on graphene supercapacitors at the moment. A commercial product won’t be too far off.

  54. JoshGrot

    What’s doubly fascinating about this is that it was a high school student and not a researcher associated with Samsung, Apple, or Nokia, etc. who one might think might have a slightly more vested interest in solving this problem…

  55. ShanaC

    very practical

  56. fredwilson

    fantastic

  57. Matt A. Myers

    Not to take away from the amazement, though I am sure many people thought the same when the car was being invented to replace horse and carriage. πŸ™‚ I feel we’ll constantly be evolving in some area.Space travel is an obvious one, but what comes from that exactly and where that will lead us to evolve to, one can only imagine..

  58. kidmercury

    fred’s partner andy weissman had a blog post yesterday calling bob dylan the best songwriter ever. i was like wtf you just offended paul simon.

  59. sigmaalgebra

    I thought that the super capacitorswere from barium titanate and, say,EEStore (KPCB), for years, justany day now. Or use it as a sourceof a strong, short pulse of energy fordirected energy weapons.

  60. ShanaC

    that helps with the intel challege

  61. JoshGrot

    That’s a good point, and may explain the “applied” science approach (vs. the “pure” science approach one normally sees at the high school and university level)…

  62. Dave W Baldwin

    Maybe he needs to go to Margaritaville in New Orleans ans listen to what some unknowns put out.