Portable Power
A Battery Recharger
That's Always on Hand:
Your Computer's USB Port
October 20, 2006
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Here's an idea. Despite all our best intentions, we have not been able to wean ourselves off disposable batteries. In fact, as we get more mobile and use more gadgets -- a wireless mouse and keyboard, MP3 players, cameras, consoles -- we actually use more batteries than we ever did. And how many of us use rechargeables? Not many. Mostly, it seems, because the charger is never nearby when we need it -- us being mobile and all that.
And yet for the very same reasons, most of us spend a lot of time sitting at a computer with lots of USB ports in it, all of which give off power like little wall sockets. (USB is the standard used to connect most peripherals with a computer nowadays.) So couldn't we just plug our rechargeable batteries into the USB port and recharge them that way? Then we wouldn't need to leave the computer (or game console) to switch over batteries. And we could take them on the road along with our laptop, and not find ourselves scouring the hotel lobby or the neighborhood for AA batteries in the middle of the night, right?
Enter exactly that: the USBcell.
The USBcell is one of those products you instantly get as soon as you see it. It looks just like an ordinary AA battery. Take the top of it off and there's a familiar USB plug. You don't need a demo: It's obvious that you plug the thing into a USB socket, a little light goes on inside the battery and when it's charged, the light goes off. Voila. Simon Daniel, founder and chief executive of Moixa Group in London, which builds and sells the USBcell, describes it as "a viral idea" with a name that gives away exactly what it is. "You hear the name USBcell and it explains what it does, or when you see it you get it instantly."
Viral ideas, of course, spread more quickly nowadays, and the USBcell is also a neat example of how you don't necessarily need a big advertising budget. When the USB battery's Web site was launched on Sept. 19, the company hadn't even issued a news release before it was all over the blogging world -- the blogosphere, in the argot -- as techies wrote about the product. Within a week, links to its Web site,
www.usbcell.com, from other Web sites rose from less than a dozen to more than a million. Companies from more than 100 countries have emailed Moixa asking to be distributors, including eight from South Korea and 10 from Japan. Compare that with the up to $10 million Panasonic spent last year in North America alone to promote its disposable Oxyride battery and you get the feeling the USBcell is a product in the right place at the right time. "It's a reflection of how the blogosphere works today in promoting an idea, particularly if it's a powerful idea," says Mr. Daniel, who invented the USBcell.
So what are the downsides? Well, unless you're a technology columnist you're not always going to be chained to your computer and have an array of empty USB ports to plug your batteries into. And a USBcell is not going to pack the same power and last as long as other mainstream batteries. (It carries about a third less power than most batteries, according to the company.) Part of this is because of the USBcell's design -- once the USB plug and an internal charger are built into the device, there simply isn't room to hold all the power of an ordinary battery. That's why Moixa plans, once the rest of us get the idea of a rechargeable USB battery, to launch versions that pack more power with different size batteries, such as the AAA, as well as smaller USB connectors.
One more possible downside: Just because we get it, doesn't mean we'll go out and get one. Two USBcell AA batteries sell for about $24 in the United Kingdom, which doesn't compare well with Duracell and other mainstream disposable batteries, which cost around $1 each. And it's not cheap even by rechargeable standards: You could buy up to a dozen rechargeable AA batteries for the same price. Mr. Daniel's response: This is not about the price per battery, but about how easy it is to recharge it. The hassle of finding a charger, outlet and some rechargeable batteries tends to reduce the number of times we actually use rechargeable batteries, he says. This is why rechargeable batteries make up just 10% of the market today.
A USBcell, on the other hand, says Mr. Daniel, is right where you need it -- meaning we're more likely to use them and keep using them. "You can't change consumer behavior saying 'you must be green,' but you can give (consumers) a better product," Mr. Daniel says.
Another downside is that the company wasn't quite ready for the interest. So far the battery is only available in Europe, although Mr. Daniel says that will change in the coming months. With its manufacturing base in China, Mr. Daniel, who briefly ran a business in Singapore, plans to set up distribution direct to Taiwan, Japan and further afield, as well as enable customers to buy online and in retail stores in the U.S.
It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but for me the USBcell sells itself.
USBcell让你远离充电烦恼
尽管各种伟大的发明创造层出不穷，但我们始终离不开一次性电池。实际上，随着社会流动性的增强，以及无线鼠标、键盘、MP3播放器、相机、游戏机等五花八门的设备越来越多，我们如今对电池的使用更胜过以往。我们当中又有多少人在使用充电电池？恐怕不会很多。主要原因似乎是当我们需要充电器的时候它却总不在身边，而我们不会总呆在一个地方。
出于完全相同的原因，我们中有很多人每天会在带有不少USB接口的电脑前坐上很长时间，而这些USB接口平常就像 上的小插座一样可以提供电力。（USB是当今电脑连接外设的一个通用标准）。那么，我们能不能把充电电池接驳到USB接口上，让电脑给它们充电呢？这可以省去没有电池的烦恼。我们可以把它们连同笔记本电脑一同带上，这样就不用在午夜时分再为无电池可用而在酒店大堂里四处寻找电池商店了。
USBcell就是一个能满足我们上述需求的产品。
顾名思义，USBcell是那种你一见到就知道该怎么用的产品。它的外形与普通的AA电池没什么区别。把它的帽子打开，一个USB插头就露了出来。甚至不用别人演示，你也知道接下来该怎么做──把插头插到电脑的USB接口上。充电过程中指示灯会一直亮着，在充电完成后便会关闭。USBcell的制造和销售商Moixa Group的首席执行长、创始人西蒙?丹尼尔(Simon Daniel)把USBcell称之为一个“令人着魔的创意”，产品的名字让人对其用途一目了然。他说，从USBcell的名字上就可以知道它是干什么用的，你一见到它就会爱不释手。
既然是个令人着魔的创意，这个产品的推广自然就轻而易举了。USBcell的走红充分证明：只要产品够好，不用花巨资去做广告产品照样可以畅销。自从9月19日USBcell的网站首次推出以来，Moixa没有做过任何一次新闻发布，但USBcell在博客圈子里却是大红大紫，这要归功于科技爱好者们的大力推广。在短短一周内，从其他网站跳转至USBcell网站(
www.usbcell.com)的链接就从不到十几个一下子增至超过一百万个。已有100余个国家的企业给Moixa发来电子邮件，表达了希望代理销售其产品的愿望。在这些企业中，有8家韩国企业和10家日本企业。松下(Panasonic)去年为了推广Oxyride一次性电池仅在北美市场就投入1,000万美元的宣传费用，与之相比，你会觉得USBcell的推出可谓是恰到好处、恰逢其时。丹尼尔表示，USBcell的声名鹊起反映出博客圈子在促销方面所起到的重要作用，特别是如果这个产品是个伟大的创意的话。
USBcell有没有什么不足之处？除非你是个科技行业的专栏作家，否则你不可能一天老守在电脑旁边，电脑上也并不总是有一排空闲的USB接口供你使用。USBcell储藏的电能和使用时间与主流电池相比还有差距。据厂家介绍，USBcell储藏的电能比大多数电池少三分之一左右。USBcell电能储备的不足与其产品设计有一定的关系。由于配有USB插口和内置了充电器的缘故，剩余的空间使得USBcell存储的电能难以与普通电池匹敌。不过，Moixa已经计划在大众接受了可充电USB电池这个概念之后，推出储备更多电能和更多尺寸的新款USB电池。
可能还有一个有待改进的地方：虽然产品面市了，但并不意味着每个消费者都能承受得起。两节USBcell AA电池在英国的售价约为24美元，比金霸王(Duracell)等售价约为1美元的主流电池贵很多。即使与充电电池相比，USBcell也没有价格优势：你可以用买USBcell的价钱买到10来节充电电池。丹尼尔对此的回答是：USBcell的卖点不在于价格、而在便于使用方面。他说，寻找充电器、插座和充电电池的繁琐减少了使用充电电池的次数。这也正是充电电池目前的市场占有率只有10%的缘故。
丹尼尔说，相比之下，USBcell是用户的正确之选，因为它可以让我们更愿意频繁地使用充电电池。他说，决不能抱着嘲笑消费者落伍的态度去改变他们的消费观念，但可以为他们提供更优秀的产品。
另一个有待完善之处是厂家并没有为庞大的需求做好充分准备。目前为止，USBcell只在欧洲销售。但丹尼尔表示，这种状况将在几个月后得到改善。随着把生产基地落户在中国，丹尼尔准备在台湾、日本和其他地区建立分销渠道，并开通网上直销，还将在美国开设零售店面。
USBcell或许不是人见人爱，但它深得我心。
Jeremy Wagstaff
