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

To: Zeev Hed who wrote (11541)	5/29/1999 2:45:00 PM
From: William Epstein	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 27311

Zeev; If they are shipping to the military we wouldn't know about it, believe me. Let's look at the Motorola. When American manufacturers make something they want to make it large quantities to achieve the lowest possible unit costs. They are not interested in small runs. This crosses all lines of business. Small runs are not profitable. Especially, laptops. This is a high tech product that requires research and tooling. You know exactly what I mean. A manufacturer needs amortization over a large quantity to make it pay. Also, the last thing they need is a recall. That could destroy the entire profit from a product line, not to mention the damage done by adverse PR. If I were an OEM I wouldn't be all that receptive, either. Who needs that kind of risk when I'm trying to get out a product line in which I've invested a lot of the company's resources? I have been on both sides at one time or another. I remember, purchasing important items or services for my company and the companies I represented and I was far more interested in proven reliability than in great new ideas. the idea was to get to the end of the chain, as planned, with a profit. They all know that sometime, soon batteries will change but who wants to be the first to make the leap when they have so much more at risk? I remember, a web printer telling me, "Our engineers have determined that 258 things can go wrong when we make-ready this 10 million dollar press. It is a wonder that we ever get it right." The innovation may be great but is it worth the risk to a laptop OEM? I doubt it. Bill