Emit,
I agree with your line of thinking. The Nupower patent is at he chip level, rather than at the battery level, which seems to be the future.
With the concentration of blade servers and network storage devices in computer rooms, power equates to heat and heat dissipation costs increase. By controlling the power to these devices more efficiently, operating costs for both power and environmental requirements can be reduced.
In the laptop/mobile phone/pda world, this would extend the battery life beyond the life of a battery charge.
RG and DS are showing themselves to be smart, experienced in these things and confident in their direction.
I'm interested to see where they are leading us. I think it's all good. :-)
AIMHO
Cherry