Agilent sees importance of distribution channel

Tektronix was the first of the big two to use the distribution channel to widen the market and drive sales of entry level lower cost scopes and meters, in particular.

Agilent has also been selling scopes through RS, Farnell and Amplicon, but I know it believes that Tektronix has had the initiative in this area and so Agilent is planning to ramp up distribution sales activity.

Whether this will involve a wider range of lower cost products or even further distributors I can only speculate.

What is certain is that Agilent has been gaining ground in the scope market, which is still dominated by Tektronix.

The economic downturn has inevitably tightened budgets and it is likely that that lower cost instruments will become more important this year.

And it is in the area of low and mid-range scopes that the distribution channel could take on greater strategic importance.

So it comes as no surprise that Agilent is looking to address this area of its business.

Remember also that LeCroy entered the distribution channel for the first time with its mid-range WaveAce scopes launched last year.