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Battery market in the United States declines
Jasper Huitink : November 14th 2005 - 10:50 CET
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 Battery market in the United States declines : The overall batteries market has seen substantial growth since 2002, yet sales through FDM fell during 2002-2005. An expanding portable digital device market is the biggest new driver of battery sales, particularly MP3 players and digital cameras, both of which are high-drain devices. Another aspect of the market is the divide between higher-priced, new technology batteries, such as rechargeables, alkaline, or lithium, and value-priced "heavy duty" or "super heavy duty" batteries. Evidence of the effect of lower priced batteries is reflected in the 9% decline in dollar sales of batteries from 2002-2005 through FDM while unit sales increased 1%. This trend may be reduced by a price hike.
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 Panasonic - Oxyride battery
Though secondary (rechargeable) battery sales account for only a small portion of overall battery sales, the segment is expected to grow more quickly than the primary batteries segment. There is also the potential that next-generation primary batteries will emerge to upset the current status quo, with a leading example being Panasonic's Oxyride battery, introduced in the United States of America in June of this year, which the company claims gained 10 percent share in Japan in its first year of sale.
Battery performance
This report, while focused on tracked sales of batteries at FDM, explores the impact from battery sales in other channels, as well as the growing tide of non-replaceable original equipment batteries. The result of this interplay is that we forecast sales at FDM to remain stuck at $2.3 billion through 2008. The report also explores batteries from the consumers' point of view, analyzing confusion over how to compare battery performance, and the growing markets for old-technology, inexpensive batteries as well as relatively expensive batteries of both the primary and rechargeable types.
primary-cell batteries
• alkaline
• zinc carbon
• zinc chloride
rechargeable batteries
• nickel cadmium (NiCd)
• nickel metal hydride (NiMH)
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