Digi-Key reinforces leadership position for maker professionals

Global electronic components distributor Digi-Key Electronics announces the unveiling of an exciting new web destination called Maker.io targeted toward the maker professional. Digi‐Key was started by a maker professional and has a long history of being a destination for these entrepreneurial engineers; and Maker.io is a new site to help them take their ideas from concept to product. 

The new website was created to help makers understand the phases that occur from concept through production. Digi-Key knows designers will have stumbling blocks throughout the phases, and the main objective of the site is to walk makers through the design-chain “Roadmap” that offers an aggregated community of tools, ideas, solutions, and information that properly meet the needs of the marketplace every step of the way. 

“There is no distributor better positioned to help the maker community with their commercial aspirations,” said David Sandys, Director of Digital Marketing. “With resources including our design tools such as Scheme-it and PCBWeb, complete BOM management support, leading edge maker-friendly solutions from companies like Adafruit, SparkFun Electronics and SEEED Studios that are augmented with full line support from industry leaders, and having the world’s largest available inventory for immediate shipment, Digi-Key truly is the best destination for the maker professional.” 

The availability of very low cost modular hardware tools combined with simple-to-use free software development environments has led to an explosion in the number of makers and developers. As a result, Maker.io is platform (Arduino, BeagleBone, Raspberry Pi, Photon, etc.), post, and project based. Beyond the roadmap, maker professionals as community members can submit projects either publicly or privately. This collaborative and project-based approach will help designers better understand the phases along the map. 

Digikey .com is the fully integrated digital source for component search and ordering needs and will continue to focus on providing ease of doing business for customers by delivering the quality, service and support engineers have come to expect from Digi-Key.

“Maker.io is the perfect complement to digikey.com,” added Sandys. “Whether you are just starting out or are already down the design path, you are able to access pre-curated content, solutions and resources from industry professionals and leaders to help guide you through the phases. No matter where you are on your design roadmap, Maker.io can help you bring your product and dreams to market.”