Apple Powers Up, Polishes iPhone

Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) has strengthened two of the iPhone's Achilles' heels by boosting battery life and adding an optical-quality glass screen.

The first potential problem, mediocre battery life, has been remedied with significantly stronger power cell. Instead of just five hours of talk time, as reported by Apple when it first showed the iPhone in January, the new and improved iPhone will deliver eight hours, according the company. Internet use increased by one hour to up to six hours, video playback increased two hours, now up to seven hours, and audio playback jumped from 16 hours to 24 hours.

These new battery life statistics, Apple boasted, are better than competing phones like the Nokia N95 (NYSE: NOK), Samsung Blackjack, RIM's BlackBerry Curve 8300 and Palm Treo 750 (Nasdaq: PALM). The iPhone's battery, like the iPod's but unlike most competing smartphones, is built-in and difficult for the user to remove. This makes the device's solid battery life critical to its day-to-day usability.

"With eight hours of talk time and 24 hours of audio playback, iPhone's battery life is longer than any other smartphone and even longer than most MP3 players," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO.

Battery-Sucking Media

"This phone is positioned as a multimedia device that is also a phone, but if the multimedia use kills the battery so the phone isn't usable, the devices will likely fail in the market because folks have a higher need for a working phone then they have for a media device," Rob Enderle, principal analyst for The Enderle Group, told MacNewsWorld.

Enderle is interested in learning how Apple achieved the improvement, he said, because vendors often solve problems like this by "screwing with the benchmarks rather than fixing the product." Battery improvements of this scale typically require a large battery, which would point to a change in the physical dimensions of the iPhone.

"That doesn't appear to have happened here, so you [have to] wonder how they got this boost and whether the boost is real," he noted.

Sharper Image?

With its large screen a major factor of the iPhone's appeal -- and with no discernible built-in way of protecting it -- the other potential problem for the device comes in the form of the scratches nearly any phone will suffer in course of daily use. What happens when a user watching "Pirates of the Caribbean" can't see Captain Jack Sparrow's face, much less someone's phone number?

Apple's online advertisements show stunning image clarity, but the ads don't say whether that clarity came from prototypes made with plastic or the newest versions, made with glass.

The entire top surface is now glass, which provides for superior scratch resistance and clarity, Apple said. Each of the smartphones to which Apple compares the iPhone, previously noted above, uses plastic display surfaces, according to the company.

Not Out of the Woods Yet

Battery claims are dependent on "network configuration and many other factors; actual results may vary," Apple's announcement notes.

Because the iPhone's battery doesn't appear to be easily replaceable, the service life of the battery may come into play. Some batteries have a limited number of charge cycles and may fail after a year or two.

Because most customers will likely opt for a two-year service plan, the service life of the battery will need to last at least two years to keep most customers happy.