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

To: Dennis who wrote (2704)	4/21/1998 1:19:00 PM
From: mooter775	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27311

Have confirmed that the Micron Go-Book is in fact a lithium ion battery pack, not a lithium polymer book. Company hopes/expects to have lithium polymer battery in fall 1998. Product itself is, as has been posted earlier, an "add-on battery pack or dock", and consists of 21 lithium-ion cells put together in the shape of the bottom of the laptop, and attaches to the laptop. Principal advantage is that the metal jacket which surrounded earlier prototypes has been eliminated (hence eliminating some weight). Total weight of base station is 2 lbs 4 oz and base station provides >8 hours of battery life. Internal workings of computer add another >3 hours of battery life, for total life of 11 hours. Total package provides, I believe 10.8 volts, 7000 watts and weighs ~ 6 lbs. Motorola is the supplier and, of course, Valence is not the battery subcontractor, since li- ion not li polymer is being supplied. My personal speculation, however, and this is only speculation at this time - is that Valence will be the supplier of the li polymer version of this battery in the fall. Agree with Wm Sharp's post # 2696 - LITH is not expected to produce until 1999 and ULBI, now in the midst of a roadshow for a financing, would sure as heck announce the contract if they had one. But its volume of 2,600 shares in the midst of a talk in NYC indicates to me that they haven't the contract. Upshot: I think Valence will ultimately sell the li polymer batteries in Q3 and Q4 to Motorola/Micron...

To: Dennis who wrote (2704)	4/22/1998 1:41:00 PM
From: Javelyn Bjoli	Respond to of 27311

I would not sweat the 1-800-Batteries opinion too much. They are just a retail reseller of replacement battery packs for notebooks & cell phones, plus some other doodads like solar panels, wall adapters etc. They are dipping their toe into selling devices also (such as Palm Pilot), due to their original business model not exploding like they thought it would. Seems that by the time they can build up some inventory on a notebook battery pack, the next model has come out, and nobody wants that one any more. Check them out for yourself, 1800batteries.com. In short, notebook designers are thinking 1-2 years ahead of these guys. Believe me, the battery is not "the last thing they think of". Also, there are not really "hundreds" of sizes of batteries used in notebooks. Most of them use either a lithium-ion "18650" size cell or a nickel-hydride "4/3 A" size cell, which are both approx. 18mm diameter x 65mm long. A notebook will typically use 12 or 16 cells in a pack. Purveyors of thin notebooks are probably using something else. The "hundreds" means that every notebook has a custom pack design, ie plastic shell, fuel gauge circuit, etc. Duracell was trying to crack this problem for a while with "standard" NiMH rechargeable packs. Notebook designers could use stock Duracell designs instead of doing something custom every time. Gillette bought Duracell late last year and put a stop to their (essentially failed) efforts. Nobody is thinking of using a polymer battery to replace the plastic shell of the product. It would be cool, but this is not the intent of the technology and none of the manufacturers are even trying to think this way. Personally I believe that the whole value-add of Li-polymer over Li-ion is thinness & moldability for at least the next couple of years. The technology will take off first in superthin notebooks & cell phones, then move into other areas.