Getting tired of the short runtime of your current Lithium Ion batteries in your phones or laptops? A company called ZPower announced that they will be launching the next generation of rechargeable, silver-zinc batteries for mobile electronics, the Silver Zinc Batteries.

Silver-Zinc Batteries promises a higher energy density than existing Lithium Ion batteries. According to the company, Silver-Zinc can offer up to 40% more runtime than today’s batteries. ZPower has been in the news before, with previous claims that the first Silver-Zinc batteries would come to the market in summer of 2008. It seems that estimate has been pushed back to 2009 with new promises from the company that battery option will be rolled out “in a major notebook computer in 2009.”

Aside from the longer runtime than the Lithium Ion Batteries, the Silver Zinc Batteries is safer and more environmentally safe. Silver-Zinc is said to be far more chemically stable than Lithium Ion which has had widely publicized problems with overheating and igniting. Over 95% of the Silver Zinc Battery elements are said to be recyclable and can be reuse, they are also offering financial discounts to customers when they trade in their old Silver-Zinc batteries.

Laptops will have to be specially designed to handle the Silver Zinc batteries, so basically current laptops cannot take advantage of the Silver Zinc batteries when they hit the market next year. While new laptops can be “dual chemistry enabled” allowing them to use both Lithium Ion and Silver Zinc. Silver Zinc is expected to be initially offered as a premium upgrade option.

Apple will surely show its interest in this new product once it comes out, longer runtime for their iPhones and MacBooks will surely boost some more sales. Who wouldn’t want some extra juice in their gadgets?

The only question remaining is how much will the Silver Zinc Battery cost?