the matsushita announcement may be BS
check out www.eetimes.com and look for the article
which discusses the battery with the claim 'went
into production on 1/20/99'. In that article you
will find a link to a 12/08/98 article by the same
author, Yoshiko Hara.
the 12/08 article cites a Matsushita spokesperson
as saying that they plan to start shipping li-poly
batteries in april but no dates for volume production.
"nothing has been decided yet. generally speaking,
it takes from 1/2 to 1 year from the supply of samples
to volume production. unless we get 100 customers
we don't begin volume production".
So we have a direct quote from a Matsushita spokes-
person just 1 month ago telling us that they will
start sampling in April. Yet today they tell us
they began volume production.
I've stated this before, but my company has done
business in Japan for years and I myself have lived
and worked there for eight years. These kinds of
press releases mean far, far less over there than
they do here.
Lev is scared to admit to anything except to earnings
once the money starts flowing in, but the Japanese,
the Koreans, etc can make just about any claim they
want with impunity, and they very often do announce
products which exist only in an engineer's head.
It is very possible that 'volume production' means
that they have just begun with their first machine
runs and have sent out samples (the article says
they have sent samples to 10 customers).
If they have not in fact produced in volume, then
they may be 1 year or more away from volume
production. The entire announcement could be
an attempt to try to start competing with vlnc
even tho they don't have production going.
Many Japanese companies have demonstrated
exactly that kind of competitive strategy, in the
past, with both domestic and foreign competitors.
There is just no way of knowing what the reality is,
but I think the 12/08 quote from the Matsushita
spokesperson gives us a very strong hint that
the 1/20 'volume production' announcement is
probably pure BS. Again, this is a very
typical strategy in a country where lawyers
need not be consulted before every press
release, and the art of 'creative' PR
announcements has honoured tradition.
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