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Technology Stocks : VALENCE TECHNOLOGY (VLNC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Javelyn Bjoli who wrote (1254)	11/4/1997 12:35:00 PM
From: barrcuda	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27311

Javelyn, I work in a comm shop that supplies both two way radios and cell phones to a company with about 10,000 employees. The new phones we are getting in from Motorola are coming with LI ion batteries. They work on the old flip phones as well as Motorola's new phones. They provide about the same talk time as the Hi Cap NiMh batteries. The big differance I can see is 1. they are lighter. 2. they are smaller. 3. They only loose about 1 percent of their charge a day and 4. they cost us $140. verses $50. for the NiMh battery. They also can be charged with an old style charger but the warning that comes with the battery claims better performance with an E.P (Expert Performance) charger. That's what Motorola is calling these batteries. Personaly, I feel like that's a lot of money differential for what you gain but hopefully with economy of scale these prices will come down. There was a similar differance in price between Nicad and NiMh when NiMh batteries were first introduced just a short while ago.

To: Javelyn Bjoli who wrote (1254)	11/4/1997 1:17:00 PM
From: FMK	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27311

Re: Your statement about battery packs - I believe this was the basis of the Compaq study. Their conclusion was that you could get 23% more active material in a battery pack. If the specific energy in wh/liter is identical, then Solid polymer can pack 23% more in an available space, as you could get 23% more beer with a 12 pack if you could include the space between the cans! Regarding watt-hr/Kg, the industry-standard 18650 Li-Ion cell with a more expensive cobalt cathode is about 90 watt-hr per Kilo. If you refer to Valence's may '97 spec sheets for their MnO2-cathode solid polymer, you can calculate about 145 watt/hr per Kg. With the diminishing size of portable electronic devices, wouldn't an OEM pay a little more to be able to pack 23% more energy into a space at about 60% of the weight? Regards, FMK

To: Javelyn Bjoli who wrote (1254)	11/4/1997 2:32:00 PM
From: Vitus	Respond to of 27311

There are more markets than the computer/phone markets. The Camcorder, and digital camara market should add to the demand for smaller/higher capacity batteries. Newer LCD screens in camcorders are making longlife a necessity. Even if the cams are 2 lbs, the battery adds another 1/2 pound(big ones) I believe when the cost benefits/technology actually hits the street, the demand would be great. Perhaps a buyout would be surface. Wishful thinking? Had VLNC for 3+ years, waiting for 20+. ...still waiting.

To: Javelyn Bjoli who wrote (1254)	11/4/1997 3:08:00 PM
From: wm sharp	Respond to of 27311

From a purely non-technical standpoint (and elaborating on your point #3: "customers want this stuff")... The marketplace is thick. Product differentiation often leads to competitive advantage. New technologies are routinely assimilated far faster than the skeptics - especially those who are close to the problem - will allow. This is the bigger issue of intense worldwide competition in high growth sectors. New products must distinguish themselves from the crowd in order to compete, in order to maintain pricing power. These OEM's are being held at gunpoint to their growth projections. (PS - On the portable PC demand question: Last year's high end becomes this year's mid line before most users can finish reading the manual.)