Tablets Reign -
retail sales to grow 40 percent in 2011

Batteries-Consumer Electronics Show (2011 January 31)



Today’s CES is really a serious connection between manufacturers, ‘wannbe’ manufacturers, and distributors or ‘wannabe’ distributors of consumer electronics, focusing almost exclusively on  entertainment TV, computers, cell phones, e books and audio devices. With real-time Comdex (http://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/it/ comdex-2010-virtual-fear-and-loathing-of-las-vegas), now a page of history, the Consumer Electronics Show is now the largest in Las Vegas. This year about 140,000 people, of which 30,000 were international attendees  migrated from Comdex ‘Nerdstock’ (a description coined by Dave Barry) to ‘cashstock’, a forum on making and selling what consumers will want for their entertainment experience. For years now, CES’s theme has been convergence, and this year did not disappoint. The show promised, and delivered heavy quantities of 3-D televisions, notepad PCs and cellular devices, all of which were accompanied by  bright flashing lights and megawatts of ear shattering noise to convince attendees that they truly occupied the center of the universe.


As the door  opened on a bright sunny CES 2011 in Las Vegas, attendees did not entertain the battery question. They knew that batteries were only cans and packages housing chipmunks or beetles frantically scurrying about making electricity, eventually to succumb to the law of entropy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_Entropy) at the most frustrating or life threatening moment for the battery powered device’s owner.

Only the BD staff wondered about the batteries. And this was the challenge for the next few days…where were the batteries… how many were there…and how many more were going to be needed…when...and for what?


Since big screen 3-D plugs into the wall, one might suspect that their impact on battery business would be zero. But there are three types vying for the decoding of 3-D information, one being a glasses-free set with a rippled refractor giving the 3-D impression. This method is so dependent on the viewer’s position that one had to walk through a special tunnel to be in just the right place to experience the 3-D. No batteries here! Not something  ready for the living room either!

One could stretch the point to say that these new 3 D TV’s will have a subset in the portable arena, or will evolve with the iPhoneTM to expand the need for polymers which already exist with the ever expanding cell phone market.

The other two 3 D methods use glasses. One uses battery-absent passive glasses like those in the theater some 60 years ago. The other uses glasses which are synchronized to the screen, ideally requiring some power and, without tethering cables, but batteries are needed. Already there are suppliers providing hundreds of stylized 3 D designs for the glasses so the wearer does not have to be left behind in the trendy world of style.




Another of the most popular devices at the show was the ever-expanding cellular phone. Picture here that while Apple does not attend this show, the iPhoneTM application, interconnectivity and presence is ubiquitous. At CES, it appears that everyone’s device works with the iPhone^TM, holds the iPhone^TM or has a romantic dinner with the iPhone^TM. That means only one thing! There is an ever expanding OEM market and aftermarket for cellular batteries probably in  polymer form.


The third big player at  CES 2011 was the tablet PC. The popular screen sizes for tablets are 7 inches, 8 inches and 10 inches. They work on a variety of operating systems from Windows to Android to Linux . (Remember Apple is not here with its iPadTM.)

There appeared to be enough tablet suppliers for a world population in excess of 40 billion people, so one might suspect that over a period of time the majority will go the way of all flesh, leaving the brand name producers to supply a yet to be determined market size. For the polymer battery manufacturers it will be a growing OEM and aftermarket opportunity.

Strangely, the tablet without a keyboard is already recognized as being short of a keyboard so many of the devices can be obtained with a separate wireless keyboard, bringing the size up to the ballpark of a netbook. Is this convergence or merely a new paradigm?


At least five years ago a major or underlying theme for CES had been convergence. The structure  has been left open, but the pathway points to a singular ‘white’ hole which would have every aspect of entertainment, data manipulation, communications and sushi recipes. Convergence has progressed yearly as we have seen with  communications, entertainment and special functions gravitating to the likes of the 3 G wireless devices. At  CES 2011 we see that they all tie together through apps and systems such as Google TV which brings everything into the HDTV screen of the media center. Couch potatoes can now wirelessly deposit their unemployment check without leaving the multicolored glow of their 1080p center of life. The bathroom is still a short walk, but convergence has not run its course.


Is there any place for batteries in convergence? Yes, if you look at the cell phone batteries and remotes, but much of the interconnection of convergence sucks its electrons from the wall. Still, total battery need will grow both in primaries and rechargeables at both the OEM and replacement levels. Is there anything on the horizon which will replace these stalwarts? Probably not! It is a  commodity market.


Some of the battery companies are known principally for  their battery lines such as Energizer, but others have batteries encased deep within their product lines such as BYD and Hyundai. The latter focus on autos, but still have major impacts on all aspects of battery manufacture.



The popular conception of a robot is a humanoid, which mimics the actions of people as embodied in the lovable Star Wars ‘bots’ R2D2 and C3PO. In 1977 moviegoers definitely left the theater with a dream of  ‘I want one of those’ when the future gets here. Today the future is here, but R2 (his first name) is still a virtual ‘bot’ with not much hope of becoming reality in our living room.

As the Japanese’ population has aged, the society has realized that there are insufficient caregivers to the elderly and thoughts of robotic caregivers replacing unavailable people caused serious efforts to develop humanoids. At the turn of the century CES, attendees were treated to the likes of Asimo, the Honda humanoid who could walk and climb stairs, but it still remains a curiosity for entertainment.


























Devices like the solar capturing briefcase by eco traveler  shown  here have external PV to provide power to recharge small electronic devices and when not needed, the briefcase PV can put the power in an included supercap storage box. When all else fails, the briefcase incudes an optional wall charger.


Batteries are in abundance at CES, but they are buttoned up inside the glitzy entertainment end products,  hidden from the consumer’s view. The choice of type, shape and chemistry of each battery is left to the product builders. In cases where competing products can differentiate by convenience or life, a battery choice could be used to sway customer preference, but for example, the convenience difference between the easy user-battery-replacement- of a Sony WalkmanTM versus the difficult-replacement in an iPodTM, can be overcome with  product advertising hype.

Future battery market growth could be provided by robots and the consumer could develop a thirst for fuel cell power and transportation, while consumer extended product portability could be enhanced with solar power. Can CES develop the hype for these thechnologies? Stay tuned!