ByNathan Jeffay, Nathan Jeffay
If an Israeli company gets its way, waiting for your phone to charge will soon seem as out-dated as hanging around while your TV warms up.
Tel Aviv-based StoreDot is about to give industry experts a glimpse of a new smartphone battery that uses nanotechnology to absorb a day's worth of power in just 30 seconds.
The company will show its invention to smartphone professionals in January and the battery could be ready for commercial use within a year, according to the StoreDot's founder and chief executive Doron Myersdorf.
"This is really changing the entire experience in terms of how you use your smartphone," said Mr Myersdorf.
"The time required to charge your phone during the day will be eliminated, and you will no longer be worried about your phone running out of 'juice'."
Mr Myersdorf added that the same technology will be applied to electric vehicles and could power a car for 200 miles in five minutes.
He said: "Think about the revolution for electric vehicles once your charging time is the same as your petrol fuelling time. The major barrier to wide acceptance of electric cars is currently the charging time."
Mr Myersdorf's vision is that his smartphone charging stations will not only be fitted in homes, offices and coffee shops, but also that cities will offer them for people to use when they are out and about.
The investors funding the project include Russian oligarch and Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich. Mr Myersdorf put his idea of public charging spots to top officials from municipal authorities around the world - including London - during the latest intentional Conference of Mayors, which was held in Israel in June. He said that the idea received a warm response.
The pricing model he has in mind would keep costs low for smartphone users. "In the coffee shops, charging would be free, while in cities, the city would finance it or people would pay a small fee to use it," he said.