New-Tech Europe | February 2019

Beyond Distribution - ready-to-use products

Kristóf Féja, Arrow Electronics

There is a natural trend how electronic components are getting more complex and integrated pretty much week by week. We moved from chip-down radio designs towards module solutions because modules are easier to design in, program and use, they oftentimes come with integrated antennas and are pre-certified. All of these enable quicker and simpler design phases both on hardware and software side and reduce go-to-market time. At Arrow we don’t see this process stopping here. The market is entering into the next chapter of integration and as a market leader and technology platform provider it is our responsibility to bring these innovations to our customers. We call this solution selling, it is not just a single component or module any longer. Solution selling is providing simple, Plug&Play yet flexible platforms

that are ready to use in finished products. Arrow is not only enabling its customers with solutions but is a major driving force in developing them. Leveraging our extensive network of experienced developers and partners we are bringing these products to life and to the market. As a leading electronic components manufacturer Analog Devices joined us in this adventure and is cosponsoring our solution developments. Take our SensiThing solution developed by SensiEDGE. A highly integrated sensor product with Bluetooth connectivity and wireless charging. By simply turning it on and pairing to a smartphone data starts streaming immediately. This opens the door to many new customers that don’t have the internal knowledge, engineering resources/tools, time or financial strength to create a custom design.

Another great example is an RFID reader device developed by our partner, IoTechnics that is equipped with an additional RF interface called SmartMeshIP. It is a wireless mesh technology developed by Analog Devices and it was created to enable extremely reliable communication between devices in the harshest RF environments.Withareadingdistance of several meters, our RFID solution can be used in various applications. Customers in the retail industry can use it for real-time inventory, giving immediate feedback when a product is taken off or put back on the shelf. Any customer that is looking for a solution to track assets indoor or on- premise can use cheap RFID tags and our RFID reader product. Once an RFID tag is read by the device its information is sent to a central device – also equipped with SmartMeshIP interface – over SmartMeshIP.

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