Mobile Madness

College basketball fans all over the country have become decidedly less productive at work this month, because they have been following the NCAA® Division I Men’s Basketball Championship.  Years ago, spectators had to gather at their local watering holes to keep up with the scores of all the different games. The invention of the Internet brought the ability to track scores from home or work at any time. And in today’s world of battery-powered mobile technology, of course there’s an app for that!

CBS Sports NCAA March Madness on Demand app features real time brackets (left) and streaming video (right) of every single game over 3G and WiFi.

According to a survey from IMRE Sports, nearly one in four online Americans will use social media to follow the NCAA tournament this year, and more than a quarter of those fans will use a mobile application to do so. Turner Sports, CBS Sports and the NCAA announced that NCAA March Madness on Demand (MMOD) had already seen a 47% increase in total visits across the broadband and mobile products for the first three rounds of the tournament. In total, there were 26.7 million visits for the five days spanning the first three rounds and 36% of all streams for MMOD on Saturday, March 19 and Sunday, March 20 were from iPad and iPhone apps.

Whether they were using CBS March Madness on Demand or NCAA Fan Zone - March Madness, fans all over the world learned of Arizona’s defeat of the Duke Blue Devils via their mobile devices. And, as the VCU Rams upset top-seeded Kansas, lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries all over the country allowed fans to catch those last moments from the edge of their seats in airports, hospital waiting rooms and little league games.

Here at Palladium, after that VCU win, our brackets are as busted as yours (unless you’re one of the two people who correctly predicted the Final Four) but while we’re watching the championship games, rest assured we’ll have our eyes on all of the mobile devices that are battery powered. Advances in mobile technology have made it possible for networks and sponsors to engage fans in places the game has never gone before. Meeting the power requirements of these next generation mobile devices requires careful battery design planning, creative mechanical design solutions and in-depth integration of battery power source with device circuitry. Today’s batteries must play hard in order to survive weeks of constant bracket checking and live streaming of back-to-back games.

Palladium Energy is the most experienced battery pack designer and manufacturer for handheld electronic devices for consumer applications – including those used by college basketball fans. Palladium has the industry’s only independent and accredited test lab, IQ Laboratories, where we can design, test and certify each battery pack to the most stringent of industry standards, ensuring that our batteries can make it down to the last buzzer.

–Rebecca Kritzman, Director of Marketing

Japan Crisis: Aiding a Country in Need

The past two weeks have been unbelievable. Not only have our friends and business partners in Japan suffered two natural disasters, but they now face the aftermath of nuclear threats. Everyone around the world is feeling the impact, including the global business community.

Obviously, the global supply chain impacts of this disaster are yet to be fully understood and we assume there will be certain upstream supply implications that will become apparent over the next few days and weeks.  As we and our customers – the world’s largest OEM’s and contract manufacturers – begin to face the business implications of the natural disaster, Palladium Energy is encouraging its employees to join global relief efforts.  During the month of March, Palladium will double all American Red Cross donations made by its employees.

With six worldwide locations, Palladium recognizes its role as a member of the global business community. With that designation comes the responsibility to care for the global community and those devastated by events like the Japanese earthquake.  That’s why we’re pleased to take part in the American Red Cross’ relief efforts by supporting our employees who give.

We’d love to learn how our customers and fellow suppliers/partners are participating in relief efforts.  Leave us a comment below or click here to donate to the Red Cross’ disaster relief fund.

- Rebecca Kritzman, Director of Marketing

Going Global: Documenting Our World-class Facility and Processes in Shanghai

Last week, Product Manager Tom Larsen and myself had the opportunity to travel to China to visit Palladium’s Shanghai manufacturing facility and our independent battery systems testing and certification lab—IQ Laboratories (IQL). Our main purpose for flying over: to capture our world class facility, quality control measures, processes and people via still shots and video.

After an uneventful 17 hour flight from the U.S. to Shanghai, a little rest and a safe drive into the office, we got to work right away (btw – Shanghai’s traffic is way worse than anywhere in the U.S.: 26 million people + 14,000 cars coming on the road per WEEK + nobody obeying driving rules = a terrifying ride!).

Still-shot photographer with Rebecca and Tom shooting the battery pack silk screen printing process

First up: a two-day photo shoot. We captured everything our Shanghai facility had to offer. Expansive exterior views, our customer lounge, our brilliant engineers and R&D team hard at work, program management and all of the critical steps in our custom lithium-based battery pack manufacturing process including the quality controls. For those of you who have not been on a photo or video shoot, it’s not as glamorous as everyone thinks. A lot of thought and attention to detail goes into getting the perfect shot. Your feet and back kill at the end of the day!

Palladium’s Jason Jiang “Mr. Hollywood” with videographer

Second up: a one-day video shoot. We captured most of the same things we did in the still-shots, but of course captured action—including all the battery testing IQL performs on a daily basis for customers to ensure they end up with the safest and most reliable battery pack. Tests captured via video include the Drop Test, Hot Plate Test and X-ray.

At the end of the trip we had one very tired translator (our very own Jason Jiang, whose real job is to focus on Palladium’s customers and new business, but he translated all art direction to the photographer/videographer for us!), and ended up with more than 80 still-shots and 1 hour of video footage. Stay tuned as we create communication pieces so that everyone can get a first-hand look at our unique and controlled processes and facility in Shanghai—without having to travel 17 hours!

–Rebecca Kritzman, Director of Marketing