Arrow Electronics has stepped up its sales activities in the LED lighting market with an online partnership with LED supplier Cree.
But is it fair to say Arrow has been a bit slow to respond to the LED lighting opportunity?
Remember other distributors have highlighted their LED initiatives. Most notably Future Electronics which launched its lighting solutions business more than two years ago.
Avnet, RS, Mouser and Digi-Key all have lighting websites in place.
And so does Arrow, so is it really off the pace?
Also, if you look at the stats the LED lighting market is still in its infancy and some may argue still to deliver as a true 'electronic component' market.
In which case Arrow has little or no ground to make up.
Still, Future's founder and president Robert Miller said last year that he felt he had a two year start on everybody else in LEDs and this would pay dividends when the market takes off and becomes a multi-billion dollar component market.
Who would argue with Future's founder?
Future has a strong LED partner in Lumileds, but some may argue that Arrow has an equally strong LED partner in Cree.
Cree will supply credibility and know-how to its collaborative website with Arrow which is designed to help engineers choose the right Cree LEDs. It also offers design tools and training resources.
There will also be a tool to calculate LED valuations such as lumens per dollar, estimate LED design parameters and make performance calculations.
Make no mistake, this is a serious attempt by Arrow to step up the pace in the LED lighting market. Only time will tell whether the distributor has got its timing right.
Leave a comment