Supplemental batteries for electronic devices

1. An electronic device, comprising:

a device housing;

a display device disposed in the device housing;

a main battery disposed in the device housing;

a supplemental battery electrically coupled to the main battery before the main battery, the main battery drawing power from the supplemental battery in a parasitic arrangement, wherein the supplemental battery comprises a battery having a smaller battery capacity than the main battery and wherein the smaller battery capacity does not provide enough battery capacity to power a full system of the electronic device alone; and

a processor operatively coupled to the display device.

2. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the supplemental battery does not significantly increase the peak energy of the device when combined with the main battery.

3. The electronic device of claim 2 , wherein the supplemental battery has less than half the watt-hours of the main battery.

4. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the supplemental battery is asymmetric.

5. The electronic device of claim 1 , wherein the supplemental battery is disposed in the device housing proximate to the display device.

6. The electronic device of claim 5 , wherein the supplemental battery is planar and disposed proximate to a flat panel of the display device.

7. An electronic device, comprising:

a main battery operatively coupled to a plurality of device components;

a supplemental battery electrically coupled to the main battery before the main battery, the main battery drawing power from the supplemental battery in a parasitic arrangement, wherein the supplemental battery comprises a battery having a smaller battery capacity than the main battery and wherein the smaller battery capacity does not provide enough battery capacity to power a full system of the electronic device alone;

said supplemental battery supplying power to only a subset of the plurality of device components; and

a processor operatively coupled to the plurality of device components.

8. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the supplemental battery is dedicated to a wireless subsystem.

9. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the supplemental battery is dedicated to a display device.

10. The electronic device of claim 9 , wherein the supplemental battery is disposed in the device housing proximate to the display device.

11. The electronic device of claim 10 , wherein the supplemental battery is planar and disposed proximate to a flat panel of the display device.

12. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the supplemental battery comprises a plurality of supplemental batteries.

13. The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein each of the plurality of supplemental batteries is dedicated to one of the plurality of components.

14. The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein the processor executes code to switch power to a component of the plurality of components.

15. The electronic device of claim 14 , wherein the code switches the power to the component from the supplemental battery to the main battery.

16. The electronic device of claim 15 , wherein the code switches the power responsive to the supplemental battery charge reaching a predetermined amount.

17. The electronic device of claim 15 , wherein the main battery thereafter powers the component.

18. The electronic device of claim 7 , wherein the supplemental battery does not significantly increase the peak energy of the device when combined with the main battery.

19. The electronic device of claim 18 , wherein the supplemental battery has less than half the watt-hours of the main battery.

20. A computer program product, comprising:

a storage device having computer readable program code embodied therewith, the code being executable by a processor and comprising:

code that supplies power from a supplemental battery to at least one component of a plurality of components of an electronic device, wherein the supplemental battery is electrically coupled to a main battery of the electronic device before the main battery, the main battery drawing power from the supplemental battery in a parasitic arrangement, wherein the supplemental battery comprises a battery having a smaller battery capacity than the main battery and wherein the smaller battery capacity does not provide enough battery capacity to power a full system of the electronic device alone;

code that detects that the supplemental battery has reached a predetermined charge amount; and

code that switches from the supplemental battery to a main battery for powering the component of the plurality of components;

wherein the supplemental battery does not significantly increase the peak energy of the electronic device when combined with the main battery.