One of the significant issues that Lev raised several times was second sourcing. For both cellphones, laptops and PDA's this is an issue. For laptops, no one else is capable of second sourcing, it appears -- hence companies have to take a leap of faith that the risk is worth the reward. For cellphones where size does matter, building below 6 mm (he mentioned that no one else can go beyond 6 mmm) again creates problems regarding second sourcing. This all suggests to me that Valence needs to calm OEM's concerns in two ways. First, they need to get enough product to market that perceived risks will begin to evaporate on their own (something Lev mentioned). Second, they need to liscense quickly so that there is additional manufacturing capability for their batteries that OEM's can rely upon (something that Lev indicated he was not interested in doing until they had ramped up volume).
Overall, Lev seemed cautious, but very optimistic. Of the six pages of notes that I took, the most important issue (negative) was second sourcing, this was balanced, however, with 115 projects beta testing (50 potential customers). It was also clear that most/all of the major cellphone manufactures are looing at valence products. Doug |
