on producing versions of the power pack for military use. In addition, Medis is working with General Dynamics Corp. During 2005, the company said, it began working with major cell phone operators in the U.S and U.K. Medis has already lined up a number of distribution deals that should see the power packs appearing in retail stores, and it's talking with potential volume resellers, including cellular phone carriers. The end-user price will be slightly higher. In high volumes, the company anticipates the power packs will cost about $8 each to distributors. at a plant in Ireland with a capacity of 1.5 million power packs per month. Mass production will be handled by Celestica Inc. Medis plans to make about 100,000 fuel cells on the line in 2006 to enable the second-half launch and move toward mass manufacturing beginning in 2007, said Lifton. Mirroring these launch plans, initial production will begin on a semi-automated line in Israel. At that time, they will be available in a small number of stores ahead of a major launch planned for 2007, according to the company's plans.
Medis is planning to commercially launch the devices in the second half of 2006 as the back to school season begins in the U.S., Lifton said. "Depending on usage, they could be free from the wall for up to six weeks." "In the case of the enterprise users, who may keep the product attached to a Pocket PC to keep the devices' battery continually full, they would get much longer, as they are only topping off the battery," she said. For an iPod music player, a single Medis fuel cell could keep the gadget running for about 80 hours, she said.
Medis envisages that these will include cell phones, digital cameras, handheld devices, MP3 players and handheld video games like the PlayStation Portable and Nintendo DS.