Smartphone
GPS and Wi-Fi are having a negative effect on smartphone battery life

Smartphone makers swift to adopt Wi-Fi and GPS

But more technology proves to be a drain on power

Iain Thomson in San Francisco

Smartphone manufacturers are cramming more and more technology onto platforms, but the end result is shorter battery life and more disgruntled customers.

Analyst house Canalys said in its latest report into European smartphone sales that 38 per cent of smartphones now come with GPS built in, and 58 per cent are capable of connecting using Wi-Fi.

Advertisement

However, the extra features and large touch screens which make up 13 per cent of the smartphone market are having a negative effect on battery life, and this is causing customer dissatisfaction.

"People are wary of draining their battery and not being able to make calls, " said Canalys senior analyst Pete Cunningham.

"Battery life is not helped by having GPS and Wi-Fi turned on, nor by having a large bright screen for navigation or web browsing.

"But there is clear demand for those features and applications, and advances in battery technology would enable quite substantial changes in usage patterns with all the service revenue benefits that would bring."

Canalys polled 4,000 European phone users and the number-one concern they expressed was battery life.

Overall Nokia dominated smartphone sales with over 70 per cent of the market. However strong growth from Motorola and Samsung saw their sales increase by over 200 per cent.

  • Have your say
  • Send to a friend
  • Print
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Share

Do you agree?

Related whitepapers

Related jobs

Most watched

HTC Hero

Video: HTC Hero launch

Handset maker unveils its latest Android-based smartphone

Xperia X1

Video Review: Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

First Looks Editor Ian Williams gets hands on with the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

IT white papers

Search white papers

Top categories

Poll

Poll: Summer smartphones

Poll: Summer smartphones

Which smartphone will you be taking to the beach this summer?

View poll results

Advertisement

Advertisement

Newsletter signup

Sign up for our range of FREE newsletters:

Existing User

Newsletter user login:

Enter email address to edit your newsletter preferences

Job of the week

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Hiring now on ComputingCareers:

Related IT jobs

Search thousands of IT jobs :

Search thousands of IT jobs:

Advanced search

Spotlight

Twitter

Twitter charges are bad idea, say V3.co.uk readers

Over a third insist the service should remain free for...

great wall of china

Podcast Special: Views from the Valley

The hottest stories from the US, including news of China's...

Mobile phone charger

Top 10 articles, 3 July 09

Free upgrades for Windows 7, and standard mobile phone chargers...

Red Hat

Red Hat beta builds on virtualisation plans

Kernel-based Virtual Machine virtualisation added to latest Enterprise Linux beta

Primary Navigation