At first glance, this may appear to be quite a limited market. One application which comes to mind are backpackers.
However, consider a different market.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/engineering/gonzo/how-a-new-battery-could-change-rural-africa
[font face=Times, Serif][font size=5]How a New Battery Could Charge Rural Africa[/font]
[font size=4]For 500 million mobile phone users in impoverished communities around the world, it's tough to find an outlet to charge their batteries. A U.S. startup called Fenix International would like to change that with its new, ruggedized and intelligent battery, the ReadySet.[/font]
November 11, 2010 11:00 AM
[font size=3]Rural Africans have at least one thing in common with people in developed countries: the perpetual quest for a mobile phone charge. The difference is in what we're looking for. In rural Africa, it's not uncommon to charge a phone on a car battery. Car chargers with cigarette lighter adapters are widespread, and enterprising tinkerers dismantle the adapters, attach them to used car batteries and bill $.25 for a charge.
"There are 500 million cellphone users worldwide who don't have access to the grid, so how in the world are they charging their phones?" asks Michael Lin, an American product designer and founder of Fenix International. (That figure—500 million —comes from research by the GSMA, the international association of mobile operators.) "The surprising answer is, it's totally informal: 25 cents at a time." It turns out that mobile networks, and Lin, see a market in Africa. Lin wants to sell a safer, more reliable battery and micropower generator, and the mobile carriers want customers to charge their phones.
The problem with car batteries is that they're dangerous. In homes, they can leak or spill acid. "We've seen a lot of burns," Lin says. Plus, the cost adds up. When they're repeatedly depleted, car batteries quickly lose their ability to hold a charge. And charging them can be an ordeal. People have to cart them to the nearest village that has a generator or a grid connection, which is sometimes a trek of several miles.
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Seriously? In a world where a better battery case is life changing…
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