I’m a big fan of UMPC predictions. I especially like reading other people’s thoughts on the future of the Ultra Mobile PC. CarryPad doesn’t disappoint with its well-crafted article on what we might expect from the UMPC’s battery over the next 5 years. Here’s the bottom-line:
* 2006 - Average UMPC life 2.5 hours
* 2007 - Average UMPC life 3 hours
* 2008 - Average UMPC life 3.6 hours
* 2009 - Average UMPC life 4.3 hours
* 2010 - Average UMPC life 5 hours.
I think the logic behind Carrypad’s power increase predictions is right-on. However, I believe that new, advanced power technologies are on the verge of commercialization. You know, like from fuel cells and other technologies recovered from crashed alien spacecraft. These will likely lead to revolutionary leaps in power longevity rather than incremental ones. In 5 years time, I believe we will be looking at about 10 hours of UMPC usage per charge.
To fully appreciate Carrypad’s numbers and their excellent analysis, you must read the full article. It is just plain fun (despite all of the math mumbo-jumbo). Check it out here.
Loading ...
I’d like to see a “batter caddy” of some kind — an array of five batterys that can be plugged in and charged all at once. Then, if the batterys were hot-swappable, you’d be set. Instant 10 hr battery life.
I think the numbers are right on with the way the industry works. We can and already have sub-notebooks that have 5hrs batt life. An Averatec 1050 notebook gives 4~5 hrs batt life and comes with 512mb ram, a 10.6″ screen, DVDburner drive and 60 (or 80gb?) hdd. It weighs about 3.1lbs and is available since last year.
My 13.3″ Averatec 4265 already gives me 2~3 hours of batt life depending on my usage.
Can or should a UMPC deliver 5hr today? I’m sure it can already be done. Unfortunately, as someone mentioned on another site, these companies will sell the batts with higher capacities as extended life batts and rip you of $150~$200 more.
So sadly, the above numbers are true in a realistic sense, for the manufacturers, despite availability of batt tech, will choose to hold on to their cards and try to squeeze the goose till its dead. So yeap, 5hr batt life by 2010 … hopefully.