Cell phones tend to run out of battery when we most need them - when we are running late for a meeting, when we have just realized that we are locked out of our home, etc. Such problems could be fatal if we find ourselves in a medical, fire or police-related emergency.
Laptop computers have power schemes that let them switch off when they are left with 5-10% battery life. Why not use a similar power setting as the default on all phones? Nowadays, most phones have irritating and only half-useful sound signals when the battery runs low. If the phone only beeps several times and then turns itself off, it will not wake us up in the middle of the night and the battery will not be dead by the time we wake up. After turning itself off, the phone can be switched back on by the user, but start-up can be in low-power mode (less colors and sounds, no vibration) and the user can be greeted with a message: "Charge me soon. If you need make a call, do it now. I will turn myself off after a minute of inactivity."This setting may be especially useful for seniors, who seldom use their cell phones but need reliable communication devices in the case of emergency.
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We're not familiar enough with phones for them to speak to us in first person yet.
Also, maybe you mean the battery will be dead by the time we fail to wake up...I'm using my cell as an alarm clock now anyway.
I seldom let my phone get that low, but it does turn off the phone-portion of the processes running when battery life is low. My phone is a Palm Centro. So even though the 'computer' part is still running, I have to turn the 'phone' back on to connect to a cell tower. I expect this saves some energy over having to contact the cells-I don't know how often this occurs. It has always had enough zoop left to make at least one last call.
I have heard of people who have never seen their phone die on them. To others, this happens every week. I have no doubt that many cell phones have the technology to save power when the battery runs low. The question is to set up the human-phone interface in a most helpful and least frustrating manner. The question is whether the benefits of early switching off, e.g. having a phone when you most need it, outweigh the costs, such as having less 'regular' battery life.