A lot would depend on how much of a hassle it will be to replace the nickel cartridges (every 6 months, and the tested unit had 300 reactor chambers), and how much the replacements will cost. If we're talking about needing a complete teardown/rebuild every 6 months, then the maintenance costs may be high.
Not only that, but customers would often need to buy two so that while one is down for maintenance, the other is supplying power. To prove self sustaining mode, they will need to show an E-Cat running continuously for months. Any less and its utility is lost.
If the thing does actually work, eventually real engineers will get involved with the scale up, and instead of bunch of tiny units they will have one big unit. This assumes the phenomena works on a larger scale. IF it does not then this will be a nightmare of small devices. These things will then be used for heating and cooling- homes and offices. (Using a lithium bromide chiller, requires a heat source - and this could be that very cheap heat source, taking a big bite out of electric demand.)
It sounds like the AP is not publishing its story.
The world is far too skeptical.