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imo very conscious decision on part of Apple (and PC makers) to provide short battery half lives, rather than spending more money to deal with the size and heat
by gz5 13y ago
imo very conscious decision on part of Apple (and PC makers) to provide short battery half lives, rather than spending more money to deal with the size and heat/cooling constraints of laptops, especially the thin lightweight variety.
not only saves them money short term, but helps push users to new versions before they really need to jump...
- glhaynes 13y agoIs there evidence for this? Is there a better battery tech the entire industry should be using instead? Seems unlikely.
- gz5 13y agois it possible the better batteries don't (generally) exist because the manufacturers are not motivated to invest the r&d in the first place? i certainly have had too many laptops that don't provide optimum cooling (and they could, at more expense) when we know heat is a limiter of battery life.
- another 13y agoNot to support the "evil executives" hypothesis---obvious market(ing) forces are a sufficient explanation for the dominance of LiCoO2---but I would easily opt for a laptop that offered an LiFePO4 ("iron phosphate" [0]) option. The drawback would be slightly reduced initial capacity; the advantage would be much greater cycle life. Also, less spontaneous combustion. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_iron_phosphate_battery
- tomkarlo 13y agoCan you point to data showing competitors that are doing it better? Seems like the battery life problem impacts everyone pretty equally, and the batteries being used inside Macbooks are pretty similar to those used by every other manufacturer.
- gz5 13y agoagree, this is not specific to macbooks. bottom line is today's batteries only achieve (relatively) limited charge/discharge cycles and i don't believe (could certainly be wrong) there is much business motivation to improve that.
- tomkarlo 13y agoI'm sure manufacturers keep an eye on some minimum standards for battery life over product life - they do have a financial incentive to do so, both from a brand quality perspective and in terms of the cost of each visit to the Genius Bar / warranty claim. I replaced the battery on my MacBook twice under warranty, I can't imagine that laptop ended up being profitable for Apple.
- kalleboo 13y agoThere's plenty of business motivation in fields that combined exceed PCs monetarily, such radio, military, space, automotive, aeroplanes, power grid, anywhere you use energy