Digital Home Thoughts: Valence Technology Exits Mobile Battery Power Market

"Valence Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: VLNC) today announced that it will discontinue manufacture and sales of its N-Charge ® Power System on July 31, 2008, in line with the company’s previously stated strategy to focus on the large-format energy storage market. “Response to the N-Charge system has been positive,” said Bob Kanode, president and CEO of Valence. “However, our decision to discontinue the N-Charge product helps us to focus our resources more effectively on the large-format energy storage market where we expect to see significant growth opportunities.” Affected products are the VNC130 (1001153) and VNC65 (1001152) and associated accessories and peripherals."

If you read my review of the Valence N-Charge battery two years ago, you'll know that I thought very highly of the product - it was an amazingly powerful battery, giving me nearly 20 hours of total battery life with my little Fujitsu P7000 series laptop. The biggest problem with it was that Valance used a specific connector for each laptop, so once I stopped actively using my Futjisu laptop (it sits in our TV room now and doesn't leave my house), it essentially became useless to me. When you buy an expensive accessory (it cost $299 USD) you want to be able to use it for longer than your laptop lasts - and Valence had no adaptor for my Dell XPS M1330, so I was out of luck (you can read all about it in this article). It's really unfortunate, because a properly-done mobile battery is a powerful tool - yet I struggle to find one that really fits my needs. Valence evidently doesn't think they can get this right - is there anyone out there who can?