Rumor: iPhone battery only lasts 40 minutes

It seems like MarketWatch columnist John C. Dvorak doesn't like the iPhone. Or maybe he just likes all the attention he gets for slamming the much-drooled-over device? Whatever his reasons are, the guy recently made headlines by suggesting that Apple can the phone, since he's fairly certain that the device is destined to fail. While there's definitely a chance that the iPhone won't be met by the phenomenal success that many are expecting (a fate the Newton knows all too well), it's a little late now for Apple to consider dropping the phone. The latest from Dvorak is that he claims to have some privileged information from a mystery Cingular rep who is currently testing the iPhone. According to the unnamed rep, the iPhone's battery only lasts for 40 minutes and furthermore, "there are lots of issues" with the interface. Considering that other smartphones like BlackBerrys and Dashes usually sport a battery life of at least a few hours, it's a little bit hard to believe that Apple would ship their smartphone killer with such a cripplingly weak battery. As for the interface still having kinks to work out, other folks have mentioned as much, though one would hope that the company is close to having the iPhone OS finalized this late in the game. I'm a little skeptical about the veracity of Dvorak's claims but I guess we'll all have to wait until June to find out for sure.

For more on the iPhone's battery woes:
- see this post at The Apple Blog