Google enters race to enhance battery power

Google Inc has entered the race to enhance the battery power of mobile devices and other hardware.

With the new trend of wearable devices, electric cars, flying drones and other similar technologies, batteries would be required to deliver much higher power than the lithium-ion one's that are used in phones, and the alkaline batteries found in Wii controllers.

That was the reason companies like IBM and Tesla had taken it on themselves to conduct research into stepping up battery performance.

In 2012 Dr Ramesh Bhardwaj, former Apple Inc battery expert, started testing batteries that Google used in its devices. After a one-year gap, the group started looking at battery technologies that Google might be interested in developing itself, according to sources closely associated with the project.

The small group consisted of only four members and was also a part of GoogleX research lab.

In February Bhardwaj highlighted at an industry conference how thin-film batteries could be used for powering smartphones and other wearable devices that were bendable and thinner.

Explaining further for other wearable devices like Google Glass, the batteries could prove to be very efficient for features like video.

Recent years had seen Google expand into many industries such as robotics, health care, transportation, designing physical devices, and communication that required proficient batteries.

Google wanted to control more of their own destiny in various places along the hardware supply chain, according to Lior Susan, head of hardware strategy at venture-capital firm Formation 8, The Wall Street Joural reported.

She added their moves into drones, cars and other hardware all required better batteries.

Batteries continued to be a huge sticking point for mobile technology, particularly with the emergence of wearables as a growing product category.

Apple's new Apple Watch, for instance, promised a meagre 18-hour battery life, which most users would find to be on the lower side.