The staggering crowds of newly-minted iPhone 5 owners can look forward to paying $0.41 a year in order to charge their devices. This exact amount has been determined through recent research done by Opower, a company that specializes in customer satisfaction solutions. In kilowatts, $0.41 comes out to roughly 3.5 a year. For context, the figure comes out as less than what it costs to charge the Samsung (News - Alert) Galaxy, a smartphone that boasts a charging cost per year for which is more than fifty cents. 

Generally speaking, the typical iPhone aficionado is not going to be very concerned about forty extra cents per year. Still, the electricity that is sure to be used in order to power the nation’s smartphones is far less negligible a figure. With all of the iPhones currently in circulation in America and abroad, that forty cents multiplies to a far greater amount. Apple (News - Alert) has estimated that it anticipates selling nearly 200 million iPhone 5’s in total. That means that over a year, the amount of energy expended just to charge those phones would be enough to power a mid-sized city through the calendar year. 

Still, though smartphones are becoming more ubiquitous every day, the general consumption of energy is still predicted to go down. This is because people are using their smartphones to replace a slew of other electronics, including computers and TVs, which suck up a lot more power. A customer could complete the same tasks on an iPhone (News - Alert) rather than a computer and use far less energy, overall. 

So, while the initial numbers regarding energy use for charging the iPhone 5 might seem a little overwhelming, it’s still a net gain for the world’s energy supply. Because larger devices are starting to go out of style, smartphones will eventually become more of a boon to the environment than a detriment—the very fact of which might get more people to pick up a smartphone and start saving energy. 

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO Austin 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX.  Stay in touch with everything happening at ITEXPO (News - Alert). Follow us on Twitter.