One commentary I always make about the smartphone industry is that there’s always a huge focus on making devices more and more responsive as time goes by. Every year, every smartphone is always “faster” or “lighter” or “thinner.” Screen technology is improving very fast from LCD to LED to AMOLED to Super AMOLED to Super AMOLED Plus. BUT — and that’s a big but: what about battery technology? Lithium ion and lithium polymer have been around since the 80’s and although there are improvements to how devices save battery life, there isn’t much on the forefront of next-generation battery technology. The near future is bright however, with graphene (wrote about that here as a thought piece on the iPad rumor) being looked at as the new wonder-element for semiconductors and battery technology.