Toshiba, which first planned to launch its fuel cell for laptops last year, indicated Wednesday the device won't reach the market until at least 2007.

“Toshiba has already started providing samples for evaluation purposes," said Midori Suzuki, who is in charge of international media relations. “However, it is not at the stage of commercialization, yet.”

This is the second time Toshiba has postponed the launch. The Tokyo-based computer company originally said it would introduce its methanol-based fuel cell in 2004, and then changed the expected launch to 2005.

In the meantime, Medis Technologies, a New York-based fuel cell company, announced last month that its micro fuel cells will hit retail shelves in January (see Fuel Cells Step Closer).

As portable devices have become smaller and more power hungry, batteries have been unable to keep up, and fuel cells are seen as a potential solution. Fuel cells produce power by mixing fuel with air and water between a reactive film membrane in an electrochemical reaction. They are eventually expected to be smaller, lighter, and up to 10 times more powerful than batteries.

They arerefilled with fuel instead of recharged, potentially freeing portable gadgets from the outlet-attached recharger. But some of the first micro fuel cells are expected to recharge batteries, instead of replace them.

Toshiba has been working on a methanol-based fuel cell that would be attached to a laptop and would constantly recharge the lithium-ion battery.

Ms. Suzuki said the main reasons for the latest delay are regulations that prohibit passengers from bringing methanol onto airplanes.

“One of the major purposes of [direct-methanol fuel cells] for portable PCs is that the users can use PCs without worrying about limited battery life while they are in the aircraft,” she said.

Through its involvement with an International Electrotechnical Commission working group, Toshiba has been working to change the regulations since August 2004, when the group was formed to consider industrial standards for micro fuel cells.

The company now thinks the regulations won’t change until 2007, at the earliest, Ms. Suzuki said. While procedures to change regulations always take a long time, terrorist attacks have made conditions for approval even more severe, she said.

Other fuel cells, such as a tiny fuel cell Toshiba has been developing for cell phones and MP3 players, could come out before then, she said. “You are not allowed to use [cell phones] on the aircraft anyway,” she said.

Delay ‘Not Surprising’

Dan Benjamin, a senior analyst at ABI Research, said the delay is “not surprising,”

“There are a lot of delays,” he said. While fuel cells for niche applications, such as Jadoo Power Systems’ cell for professional video cameras, have seen some success, mobile fuel cells are “still up in the air,” he said.

Heat and waste management, size and weight challenges, form factors, and the question of what to do with the cartridges, remain big challenges for micro fuel cells, Mr. Benjamin said.

“These were issues five years ago, and they’re still issues today,” he said. Mr. Benjamin said he still thinks micro fuel cells will come to the market, but he doesn’t know when. “I think we need to stop guessing on the timeline and wait until we see a shipping product.”

Atakan Ozbek, a former analyst with ABI Research, last year said he expected mass-market acceptance by 2008, with 100 million units in sales by 2012. Frost & Sullivan expects to see a $126-million market worldwide by 2010, with the bulk of that growth occurring in 2007 and 2008.