Deeply digging the MCU market to reshuffle: the rise of network distribution (1)

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The fast update speed is one of the important characteristics of China's consumer electronics market, and it is also an important requirement for electronic enterprise product development. In order to stand out in the Chinese electronics industry, the secret is only a "fast" word, product updates should be fast, and customers should be fast, which is the common understanding of many MCU companies at home and abroad on the Chinese market. The advent of the Internet era and the rise of online trading of electronic components have further boosted this demand trend. How to deal with the challenges under the new situation, while grasping the "fast" and good service, is an important issue for future MCU distributors.

Network distribution market growth

In recent years, smart grid, Internet of Things, medical electronics, lighting and other fields have developed rapidly, and there are more and more applications for MCU applications. The demand for online transaction sales in the MCU distribution sector is growing, with rapid and short-term demand trends. In this regard, Zhong Jinhong, Director of Business Development of Avnet Electronics Components China, said: “In China's electronics market, there are a number of independent design companies (IDHs) who can quickly and flexibly customize development services for customers, especially MCU software development. In the development process, they often need some development tools and a small number of components, and these 'small amount' of demand is time-consuming and expensive to purchase through traditional sales channels, and a fast-responding network becomes an important distribution channel to solve this demand."

In addition to being fast, flexible and small-volume delivery is also a new era of user demand. “Small and medium-sized companies, amateurs, education and research professionals, of course, also need to find the latest products available for testing and development that can be applied to new product designs, which often leads to frequent small-volume purchases, sometimes Even just one piece.” Liu Jiagong, general manager of the Greater China Region of the e-Community, pointed out.

“The choice of MCU products is extremely extensive. The number of items in a series may exceed one hundred. This has caused the choice of original design engineers to be extremely wide. The traditional agents and even the original factories have completely covered the difficulties in stocking. We build on electricity. The small-volume, high-volume item supply model based on the business website has solved this kind of contradiction between supply and demand,” said Tian Jiping, director of market and business development for Asia Pacific.

Under this circumstance, distribution companies such as AVENT, FUTURE, ARROW, Mouser, e-Community, and DIGI-KEY have begun to establish online sales channels to provide developers with tracking and services from “start” to “complete”.

Concentrate on quality distributors

The intervention of the network can really speed up the product supply cycle for MCU users, but only "fast" is not enough. The demand for support services in the network era is actually higher. In this regard, Greg Hodgson, director of product marketing for Silicon Labs microcontrollers, pointed out that to meet the short-term design needs of the Chinese market, MCU suppliers must be able to quickly provide product samples, development kits, FAE support, easy-to-use software tools and IDEs. , quick start sample code and demo. In order to achieve rapid time-to-market for customer products, MCU products must also provide a short lead time.

It is critical for network distributors to meet this service demand, which affects the decisions of the original and purchasing users. “In view of the current uneven distribution of products in the network, it is still unable to form a climate. The major manufacturers are mainly distributors. In the future, once the credit system is established, network distribution may become a new sales channel. Large distributors often represent several agents. The brand's products can provide customers with diversified brands and product lines, while small and medium-sized distributors provide value-added services in a certain field to win customers. How to provide value-added services to semiconductor manufacturers is important for distributors to value the original factory. Indicators. At the same time, we should actively explore new areas for the original factory, make plans for the planning of new products, and truly become partners, rather than single traders.” Toshiba Electronics (China) Co., Ltd. technical director Wang Yixing said. “Network distribution is a powerful complement to the original distribution system,” said Zhang Xiaoping, Ningpu Semiconductor's product technology marketing manager.

In short, with the rise of network distribution, the demand for support services from distributors has also changed, and higher requirements have been placed on product distribution. The market will concentrate on high-quality distributors.

Do a good job in technology and supply chain services

In the face of the above market characteristics, distributors must adopt different development strategies and strive to meet customer needs while becoming bigger and stronger. Providing high-quality technical support to users is a must for distributors to develop in the long run.

Zhong Jinhong said: “As mentioned before, we have been helping customers to accelerate 'TIME–To–MARKET'. We now have more than 90 solutions using multiple suppliers for customers to use and refer to help them shorten development time. To achieve the goal of 'fast'."

“In recent years, China's consumer electronics technology services and products and e-commerce market have developed rapidly, and more and more Chinese companies will adopt more advanced technologies to increase productivity and speed up time-to-market, thereby increasing cost-effectiveness. Alliance can also provide design services, development kits and web-based tools," said Liu Jiagong.

“Customers in small-volume distribution have a high degree of complexity and diversity, and the advantages of Moser Electronics are understanding the needs of design engineers and procurement personnel, such as finding the latest products and technologies in a short period of time, learning at any time, inspiring design. Inspiration and avoid applying phase out semiconductors and components to design development. Therefore, we provide the latest products, and the latest product series released on Mouser.cn every week is close to 50, more than twice as many as its peers; Engineers or procurement personnel need more information and interaction during the design phase. Our customer service center is equipped with technical support personnel, providing confirmation of electronic specifications, recommending the use of components or replacement components according to the design concept; our 'new generation products 'And 'Technology and Applications' sub-sites allow design engineers to find the latest technical information on related topics from industrial, lighting or medical applications or MEMS, RF, power supply and other technical fields." Tian Jiping introduced.

The rise of the Internet will inevitably have various effects on society. For example, the market behavior between companies and companies and between people will change differently. A dynamic company should adapt to these new challenges and only gain new opportunities if it meets new challenges.

Distributor perspective

Tian Jiping, Director of Market and Business Development, Asia Pacific, Mouser Electronics

Small batch and one-stop procurement to resolve supply and demand conflicts

The selection of MCU products is extremely extensive. The number of MCU products in a series may exceed one hundred, which makes the choice of original design engineers extremely wide. It is difficult for traditional agents and even the original factory to completely cover the stocking. Mouser's small-volume, mass-item supply model can well resolve this supply-demand contradiction. At the moment when the “cottage” is rampant, the original authorized spot support also helps some original designers who “time is victorious” to solve the worries. The schematic determines the order of the MCU item number, and the PCB is produced at the same time as the Mouser. Also received. In the future, Mouser will cover more item numbers and strengthen product chain stocking, such as tool MCU development environment software (IDE) and debugger, development board, and common MCU peripheral devices to meet the one-stop procurement needs of MCU customers.

In the future, we will continue to focus on the introduction of new products, which is the biggest difference between us and our peers, and it is also the most invested in human resources, budget and other resources. In addition to the products of many leading MCU suppliers, we also continue to work with leading industry leaders in various fields as design engineers use many passive components, connectors, etc. in the development of MCU-related applications. Currently authorized to distribute more than 500 companies including TI, Maxim, ADI, Altera, ST, NXP, On Semi, Fairchild, Freescale, Atmel, TE Connectivity, Molex, Hirose, Vishay, Panasonic, Murata, Omron, TDK, 3M, Coilcraft, etc. More than 10 million products from suppliers. Our investment in the latest products not only wins the recognition of customers, but also creates the growth of leading industries in the performance every year. It is also recognized by the suppliers. Many suppliers will wait until the Mouser stocking is completed, and then the new products will be launched simultaneously. It is the Asian listing of Freescale Kinetis E series Cortex-M0+, and the pre-ordered Arduino certified Intel Galileo development board. We are also the sole agent of e-commerce.