The launches by Nokia and Motorola Mobility this week highlighted the increasing competitive advantage attached to once mundane issues of battery life and charging. Nokia focused heavily on its enhanced implementation of the Qi wireless charging standard while Motorola’s CEO Dennis Woodside emphasized extended battery life as one of the firm’s key differentiating assets. Short battery life is one of the most common user complaints about their smartphones, not helped by the blurred messages manufacturers communicate. According to a study of 50 smartphones by Xerox’s WDS unit, a specialist in mobile technical support, all but two models misled consumers in their battery life claims. This was because they ignored the impact on battery performance of common activities like browsing, video…