Kamal Shah of Intel talked about the user's perception of laptop battery life. What this means is that they know that users are concerned that their battery doesn't last a whole transatlantic airplane flight.

They realized, quite obviously, that battery life is a system issue not just a CPU chip but it needs to include the screen, voltage controllers, memory, etc. etc. They use periodic surveys of end users to see how the laptop is used, awareness of power management, etc. Tom Elliot at Strategic Analytics summarized their research. Primary findings of their most recent survey is that the average notebook is used for more than half of the work week and that personal use is as heavy as work use.

Online activities are the dominant use and that notebook users want to be untethered and that they don't like wires. Over half of Chinese notebook users are using their notebook for more than 40 hours per week. It is seen that US users are a bit lower in their weekly notebook hour usage. This may be balanced by the fact that many US users have more than one computer at their disposal and so they are on a computer for longer hours but aren't on their laptop as long.

Wi-Fi use is the most common connection method. Wide area networks are expected to double in the next couple of years in China. Both of these radios use significant power in the laptop. They did find that people use their laptop differently when they are using just the battery. Users will curtail their application use, which means that they don't play games or watch as many videos and close applications they don't need when running on battery. A third of US users run on battery most of the time.

People don't want to have to plug-in when they move from room to room while on the laptop and just don't want to move their AC plug each time they move which translates to an increase in battery usage even when electricity is available. There are a significant percentage of users, eleven percent (which equals about 20 million users), that cannot run on battery when they would like to because the battery life is too limited.

The intensive use applications will not be used when someone is running on battery but the mission critical applications will continue to be used will be used when running on battery. Over a quarter of wireless users decline to use wireless when they are running on battery. This indicates a good awareness of what energy is consumed by what applications and services of their laptop.

Most users were found to be aware of battery conserving activities but they were not always taking the most optimal choices in managing their battery life. About a third of laptop users are unaware of the hibernate mode on their laptop to reduce power usage when they won't be using the laptop for more than 30 minutes. It would save them time in re-booting and will save their session information.

The numbers are a bit higher in China than in the US as to unawareness of the efficient and good step of putting it into hibernation. Chinese users are somewhat more likely to use power management tools 50% versus 40% in the US.

There seems to be a large gap as to user education as to the availability of power management tools. Critical question is whether or not users are willing to pay for extended battery life? Their surveys indicate that there is a strong demand for increased battery life. The users are also wanting a 'green' computer. Battery life is high on the shopping list in the purchase decisions of their next notebook.

They're discovering that there are a number of users that would like a battery that runs longer than eight hours. About half of the users own a spare battery but only a quarter carry it with them because it weighs a lot. Think of how crooked we currently walk, an additional battery adds close to another pound of weight. An additional battery also isn't a very convenient method of increasing the laptop run time. About twenty percent of users would spend an extra 100 USD for one additional hour of battery life. Fifty percent of users willing to pay an additional 30-40 dollars for one additional hour of battery life. The researchers realize that users aren't willing to pay an 'arm and a leg' for additional battery life but are willing to spend a significant amount o money.

Surprisingly users were willing to place battery life ahead of high performance graphics on their list of sales features for new notebooks. There were a large number of enthusiastic responses to additional green features in their next notebook including better battery life and more environmentally friendly components. The data skews very heavily to the high end of wishing for these features with more people wanting these features in China than in the US. There are a few solutions we can see OEMs moving towards now such as LED backlights despite a 5-10 dollar cost increase and Solid State Hard Drives with an increase in battery life.

In short, awareness is growing but there is a gap in user training for power management techniques and there is a very strong demand for longer battery life as well as 'green' features in the growing laptop and netbook Check it out here. X