Among the major established products (i.e., batteries and small engines), secondary (rechargeable) batteries hold the best prospects going forward, given their importance in growth markets such as high-end information technology devices and the increasing power requirements of many of these devices.

Maintaining established trends, portable solar cells will remain a niche product, finding applications in certain OEM devices such as calculators and watches where their high design and fabrication costs are offset by extended longevity. Solar cells may find increasing use in portable computers and personal communications devices to supplement battery performance, although they typically do not provide sufficient power to replace existing power sources.

Although achieving initial commercialization by the middle of the decade, portable and micro fuel cells are not expected to make a major impact on the portable power supply market until later in the decade and beyond, when costs will become more competitive and product design and regulatory issues will be resolved. Once these hurdles are overcome, fuel cells are expected to experience rapid acceptance, with demand in portable devices exceeding $1 billion by 2013. Among the various designs, proton-exchange membrane and its variant direct methanol fuel cells are the most likely to initially find success as power sources for portable electronic devices.
 
Contacts
  
 
The Freedonia Group, Inc.
Corinne Gangloff, 440-684-9600
pr@freedoniagroup.com