Mobile device advancements hit the news daily, spawning every aspect of communications except for one critical area: the battery.

Yes, we're talking about that small metallic element that plays a crucial role in making smartphones fulfill their productivity promise while under increasing stress due to more robust software and higher-bandwidth connectivity that demand more power.

"It's a slow technology to evolve, with just 5 to 10 percent improvement per year," Ken Dulaney, Gartner analyst, told InternetNews.com. "Manufacturers have tried to make better ones, but barring the development of a tiny nuclear power generator for mobile devices there isn't much they can do," he said.

That's because battery development is a complex science involving chemistry. "There's the periodic table and just so many elements, and we've done about as much as can do with that aspect," Jerry Hallmark, Motorola's manager of energy system technologies for mobile devices, told InternetNews.com.

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