Until the Sun Takes Over

Today lots of money is spent making batteries better (smaller, more powerful, longer lasting, and so on) so that we can become mobile. Some day, there might be solar-recharged capacitors capable of replacing batteries entirely. This technology depends on getting the form factor small enough, the capacitance large enough, and the solar panel interface nearly perfect. We would use the capacitor as a virtual battery. It would be just another way of storing energy for use at a later time. However, unlike batteries, the capacitor/solar panel combination would not have to be replaced periodically. Until that day comes, we will be replacing or recharging batteries. So why not marry them to our software?

It would be foolhardy of me to claim that I have stumbled upon the next great vertical integration of our time: batteries and software. On the other hand, the idea intrigues me. I enjoy exploring the pluses and minuses of such schemes, without any terminal effects.

Batterychips would solve the software upgrade problem for electronic devices by making the operation as simple as changing batteries. They would alter pricing dynamics by making software more of a consumable than a capital item. As the devices that the embedded software resides in are themselves becoming commodities, this makes sense. There may ultimately be interesting distribution issues for batterychips, but I'm confident that these could be addressed effectively.