RE: Can someone please explain....I believe that EFL's strategy is to'hide' the price of the battery within the price of a value-added product, such as a computer. However, the problems with this approach in my view are 1. the value-added product is much more expensive than competive products so the battery cost is really not disguised 2. EFL (Sankar) bet that mobility (ie battery) would be the driver for these products and that has been proven to be incorrect (at least at this point) otherwise everyone would be buying only EFL tablets, and battery life has so far not been a prime consideration for most purchasers. 3. You cannot just stick your battery in any old product and expect to compete against other co.s that are actually in the business of making that product. Customers today are savvy and are leary of an unproven product and co. especially one that has no major retail/development or manufacturing partner.
This latest decision to go into laptops looks like a panic reaction to me. They say they can't make money by mass producing their batteries. Licensing the technology in combination with developing/manufacturing certain batteries/products in joint ventures would make the most sense to me. It works for RIM, but RIM focuses on 1 product. The 'leap of faith' into another new market (laptop), without a keen business case analysis/plan in place is just like a kid setting up a lemonade stand blindly 'hoping' to sell something. They really look like rookies and ameteurs right now. They have no partnerships and the only real contract is NASA. When the money goes soon, which it will, so will EFL,in my opinion.
As for calling the company, why bother? Paul said $1.50 or so was a "buying opportunity". Sankar said 2004 will be "a great year for Electrovaya" and that (paraphrasing) the Company is perched on the launch pad ready for takeoff. What they say is meaningless, the only thing that matters is sales and profits, which they are failing miserably at. To stick around for the Maya is a mistake based on the recent statement by a company rep( one of the many with a Das Gupta surname) that EFL will make an ev (inference was independently). This is just unbelievable, now they want to be an automobile company too.
They have 6-8 weeks to provide some reasons to be optimistic or I am moving on.