Aside from the weight issue, which may result in an FAA CFR ORDER eventually, didn't a while back some airline have a fire due to faulty wiring of an installed IFE system?...

Everytime you intruduce a "NEW" item in an airplane you generate many unknowns which affect the unltimate purpose of a plane which is to "FLY" and deliver passenger to their destination "SAFELY"...

Ultimately, BOEING's decision to delay the delivery of the 787 (THE PLASTIC PLANE) by several months was the fact the "Embedded" IFE systems were presenting significant road blocks to marketing of a 4.5 Billion dollar plane, and BOEING wanted to work all the quirks out of their IFE before putting the 787 on the selling block...

The selling point for a hard wired IFE was that it could be done by the Boeing and made part of the overall cost of selling the plane. Once the plane was sold there would only be a question of servicing the content. It turns out that was not so simple. If they a have a fire in a 787 carring over 400 people and there is loss of life all of the 120+ planes have to be grounded and that will not be good for Boeing, or the Airlines using them...

On the other hand the main drawback to the Handheld IFE, aside from "content" and demand on airline crew for handling, has been the Battery "LIFE". That is why most of hand held IFE operate in the 3-10 hour flights...

There  was indications that the "20 HOUR" number was actually higher, and it could be increased further...

Aside from the question of how this is done, if EDIG can come up with a 30 hours plus battery usage time per charge for its eVU-er system, that certainly will cover trips to China and back from US. And the planes like 787 are aimed at "Long distance" flights niche...

In my conversation with RP last week, he was clear that EDIG is working on some sort of "Installed" system, as opposed to an "embedded" one...

The significance of the doubling of the battery usage time lies in the effect it will have on marketing of eVUer for now. Whether it can be sold for usage in computers and cell phones, etc. is something unknow at present...

GLTA...

Gil...