Common use of Industry Introduction Clause in Contracts

Industry Introduction. The Li-ion battery industry is growing strongly. World production of Li-ion batteries has increased 30 times in the past 10 years. Since 1992, when Sony first commercialized Li-ion batteries, the Japanese controlled the Li-ion battery market. The market's growth has been driven primarily by the spread of the mobile phone. (Data source: Portable Power Conference & Expo, September 13, 2004, San Francisco.) Li-ion batteries are the most attractive rechargeable batteries available in the market to date. Lithium-based batteries can be categorized as non-rechargeable and rechargeable. Nowadays, non-rechargeable Lithium batteries are typically used in low-power consumer electronics applications such as film cameras, and rechargeable Lithium batteries (or "Li-ion") are used in heavy power consuming electric appliances such as cellular telephones, camcorders, digital cameras, laptops and so on. The rechargeable Li-ion market is growing much faster than the non-rechargeable lithium battery market. Compared to other kinds of rechargeable batteries such as Nickel Cadmium ("NiCd") and Nickel Metal Hydride ("NiMH"), Li-ion batteries have several very attractive features: - a high operational voltage (normally 3.6v in market, it is 3 times more than NiCd or NiMH batteries), - lower self-discharge (<8% per month, 30% less than NiCd and 40% less than NiMH), - long cycle life (can be used thousands of times), and - no memory effect (unlike NiCd). Table 2-1 below outlines these differences.