Element 14 is now......Newark.com

[george graves]

Anyone else get this email?  I lol'ed.   

Dear [George],

We're excited to inform you that the element14 store will be uniting soon with our sister company Newark, a leading electronics distributor in the Americas. Together we will provide you with a much bigger in-stock electronics offering and a range of great services.

As a Newark element14 customer, you will enjoy:


 500+ top electronics brands for your project, board or facility
Choice of personal or online service
Dozens of value-added services including test equipment calibration

For your convenience, your user name, password and order history will be transferred from the element14 store to Newark.com automatically, this weekend. In the future simply visit www.newark.com and login as normal using your existing username and password.

The community aspects of element14 do not change. You can continue to access the element14 engineering community directly at element14.com or through the community link at Newark.com. The community offers you a great opportunity to confer with engineering experts and peers from around the world, "roadtest" new technology products for free, view "The Ben Heck Show", and so much more.

If you have questions about this transition call us at 1.877.314.4968.

Regards,

[david77]

Didn't they have plans to call themselves E14 globally? Now they weaken in the US, Farnell in Germany is still Farnell...I wonder if they will make up their minds  .
Who's responsible for a mess like that? Some marketing suits I bet.

[free_electron]

newark and farnell have been owned by the same parent since the year 2000 ....
element14 was a kind of spinoff...
it's all being reabsorbed now... nothing new

[T4P]

The "rest of the world" Element14 is the community
The Element14 that we know is supposed to be replacing what used to be farnell for S.E Asia only ( I can prove that... Farnell's location still has it's name on a nearby train station's map )
But basically they are the same companies
Farnell for EU, Newark for US
At least it's not as messy as it is for RS Components,
Look their Allied Electronics does not even sell mostly the same things as RS Components ...
But you do have digikey and so many distributors it doesn't even matter that allied does not even look like RS

[george graves]

nothing new

What's new is that they are changing their name of where you order(at least in the US) once again.  I just found it comical.

[free_electron]

Probably for tax and exchange rate reasons.

[EEVblog]

newark and farnell have been owned by the same parent since the year 2000 ....
element14 was a kind of spinoff...
it's all being reabsorbed now... nothing new

Element 14 was a complete re-branding of the Farnell name, and integrating it with their social community thing. With the intention I believe at the time to eventually bring Newark under the banner as well.
IIRC the CEO who instigated all this re-branding to Element14 left a few months back, so obviously the new CEO has other ideas.
So yes, it is new, and it's essentially a complete FAIL and turn-around of the whole re-branding concept.

Dave.

[free_electron]

Hmmm . I didnt know their ceo left..
I guess e14 tried to be an answer to designspark...
Maybe it did flunk.

Blth newark,farnell,rs always seemed to me like the go-to places if you needed 25 ampere fuses, lifhtbulbs,screws and some plumbing... Not really electronics parts... Yeah they have some stuff but it is very weak compared to digikey and mouser.

[EEVblog]

Hmmm . I didnt know their ceo left..
I guess e14 tried to be an answer to designspark...
Maybe it did flunk.

http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/24/05/2012/53748/premier-farnell-changes-ceo-green-leaves.htm4

I wonder if she jumped or was pushed?

E14 and DesignSpark were battling it out for electronics social media community supremacy, and both failed massively.
They both poured many tens of millions of dollars into it, and result is this forum is more popular
E14 spent a lot more dosh than DS though I believe. Thinks like the Ben Heck show cost big dollars.

Blth newark,farnell,rs always seemed to me like the go-to places if you needed 25 ampere fuses, lifhtbulbs,screws and some plumbing... Not really electronics parts... Yeah they have some stuff but it is very weak compared to digikey and mouser.

In countries like Oz, you can get them the same or next day at Farnell/Element 14. A big advantage here, if they have it in stock that is...

Dave.

[free_electron]

When i was still living in europe i used farnell quite a bit. But they never had the cool stuff. Like they only had one or two really low end fpga's . Surface mounted parts were almost nonexistent and the 1000 page catalog was 1/3 motors , relays and industrial controllers and 1/3 cardboard boxes, trolleys, shelves, drums, tape and all other kinds of stuff.
I always had the feeling the electronics parts were the stuff that always got fried in industrial machinery. So it was convenient to procure everything from one source.
In early 2000 digikey switched in fifth gear and simplyq boomed. I never looked back after that ( unless i needed some industrial stuff ).
Same with RS...

If either digikey or mouser were to open a second warehouse, outside of the us, let's say in the UK , and one in asia , they would simply waltz over e14 and farnell and almost all other distri's. It'd be game over...

[westfw]

E14 and DesignSpark were battling it out for electronics social media community supremacy, and both failed massively.  They both poured many tens of millions of dollars into it, and result is this forum is more popular

Also EEWeb.  And others.  (not even counting that LinkedIn and Facebook would also like to get that traffic.)  I wish I could figure out what makes one fail and the other take off.  (and why did myspace drop like a rock while facebook suceeded?)

(Congratulations Dave; you've done good.  And done well, too!)

[Simon]

In the UK Farnell has a fairly good offering at reasonable prices with RS not far behind. Digikey in the UK is not cheap. They didn't seem to take the E14 community seriously as when people on it we complaining about a product not being fit for use they kept on selling it and denied any involvenent with its running.

[EEVblog]

E14 and DesignSpark were battling it out for electronics social media community supremacy, and both failed massively.  They both poured many tens of millions of dollars into it, and result is this forum is more popular

Also EEWeb. 

I don't know about that. I think EEweb is alright, and probably the closest anyone has come to an electronics info portal. Although their forum didn't take off, their collated content, magazine, and interviews are good. And I mostly like the layout, lots of good info one click away on the front page.

Dave.

[EEVblog]

If either digikey or mouser were to open a second warehouse, outside of the us, let's say in the UK , and one in asia , they would simply waltz over e14 and farnell and almost all other distri's. It'd be game over...

No doubt!
Doubt we'd ever get one in Oz, it's just not economical for them, but an asian hub with quick and cheap delivery would be a real winner for us.

Dave.

[SeanB]

i think Dave has this thing called "Involvement" and this other thing called "Integrity" and the last thing "Interesting" to his credit. Makes more of an impression than anything else, and has given him a great start.

[Hypernova]

If either digikey or mouser were to open a second warehouse, outside of the us, let's say in the UK , and one in asia , they would simply waltz over e14 and farnell and almost all other distri's. It'd be game over...

The thing is they got to their size exactly by choosing staying in one place, all that warehousing and the system to support it is insanely expensive. By not trying to build multiple AAA locations and focus on one SSS facility they play their inventory advantage to its max. They have also covered the world wide shipping issue by making it free if you reach minimum order size which is easy to do since they have basically everything for a project in one place.

[Bored@Work]

So element14 is going to die a quick or slow death? Couldn't happen to nicer guys. It always appeared to me that the Farnell employees on Element 14 were under strict order not to do anything on their own initiative and not engage in any kind of discussion.

Overall, Farnell's branding even was a mess before element 14. With element 14 they claim the group Premier-Farnell owns the following companies:

    element14
    Farnell element14
    Newark element14
    Farnell Newark
    CPC
    MCM

And

    CadSoft
    Akron Brass

On top of these company names they claim they own brands like "element 14 community" and "the knode element 14".

But the list must exclude a few local companies who just seem to be registered simply as Farnell. Typical for Farnell to not really know what is happening in their subsidiaries.