User-hostile battery strength indicators 14 Nov 2007

The New York Times' Tech blogger David Pogue recently asked "How come cellphone signal-strength bars are so often wrong?" Here's the response he received from one reader:

"Like the battery indicator, the signal strength on a cell phone is deliberately weighted toward the high end. I worked on a phone development project several years ago. When the first units went to the carrier for approval, their first request was to toss the perfectly calibrated battery indicator in favor of one that sat at 4 bars for around 75 percent of the charge."

That's right, mobile phone manufacturers lie about battery strength to make it look like their products charge better!

Mark Hurst of Good Experience illustrates the stupidity of this with the following observation:

"Should auto makers design a car's fuel gauge so that it stays on 'full' until a gallon or so away from empty? After all, customers will think - initially - that the car is getting great mileage. Why not just tell the truth?"

Why do the manufacturers do this? Well, one of Hurst's readers offers the following theory:

"There was a study about this a while ago. Sorry, can't remember on which blog this came up. It seems the users used their cellphone a lot less (especially to initiate calls) when their battery indicator showed below 50%. Of course this isn't what the carriers wanted and so this was changed. Carrier happy, but screw the customer."