Ben Brooks, over at The Brooks Review, posits that the battery length of the devices/computers we cart around is the new benchmark everyone is going to measure as the most important factor on a new purchase.

Whereas we used to measure processor speed, RAM, and software the next great marketing battle is for power consumption, or lack thereof.

The only problem is:

We have been so used to crappy battery life for so many years, that now we freak out when a battery that lasts for 10 hours shows only 40% remaining (meaning 4 hours battery life left). He’s not alone, last night my iPhone 4 was at 10% battery life and I only had another 20 minutes before I went to bed — yet the prospect of the battery reaching single digits before then was very unnerving.

10 hour battery life on the iPad 2. 5 hours of wireless web work on the MacBook Air and 30 days of standby. 7 hours of wireless web work on the MacBook Pro. Apple's definitely in a great position with all their research and innovation on the battery front - if it indeed is the next battleground.