Apple touts better iPhone battery

Oakland Tribune, Jun 19, 2007 by Associated Press

Apple Inc. gave rival smart phone makers another reason for heartburn Monday, claiming its upcoming iPhone will have a battery life that exceeds the company's previous estimate and the battery life of competing phones.

With the iPhone launch a week and a half away, Cupertino-based Apple said the hotly anticipated gadget will last for eight hours of talk time, six hours of Internet use or seven hours of video playback.

When the company previewed the device in January, it said the rechargeable battery could last five hours handling any one of those functions.

Competitors' phones -- such as Palm Inc.'s Treo and Research in Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry Curve -- tout talk times of about four hours. Samsung Electronic Co. claims about five and a half hours for the BlackJack.

Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research who has a "buy" rating on Apple, was skeptical, however. "Our sources have indicated iPhone's active use battery life may be closer to around 4 to 5 hours for heavy use, similar to other smart phones," he noted in a research report Monday.

Also, Apple said the iPhone's touch-sensitive screen will be made out of glass instead of plastic, for "superior scratch resistance and clarity." Apple has been criticized and sued for how the screens on its iPod Nanos get scratched easily.

The iPhone will only be sold at stores owned by Apple Inc. and AT&T Inc., which has an exclusive deal to offer cellular service for the device when it goes on sale in the U.S. on June 29. It will also be available at Apple's Web site. The device will be available in two configurations, $500 for a 4 gigabyte model and $600 for one with 8 gigabytes of storage.