And we came on Wall Street Journal for real

dcuartielles
Arduino

November 27, 2009

The journalist that featured Arduino as a side-effect while talking about RepRap the other day on Wall Street Journal [ http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB125798004542744219?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB125798004542744219.html ] got very interested in the subject and called all of the team members to put together an article [ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499404574559960271468066.html?mod=article-outset-box ] for the online issue of the WSJ. He is focusing in the market generated by Arduino but more specificly in how open source hardware can boost interesting business opportunities.
I like the way it is written, and got happy to see that someone got to interview Gianluca in depth. Arduino is not only about boards, software and education, it is also about the compromise of manufacturers to provide a community of makers with the best tools possible, assuring quality and reliability.

The main producer of the Arduino is Smart Projects Snc, based in the tiny town of Scarmagno, Italy. This year, the two-person firm is on track to sell at least 60,000 of the microcontrollers, which retail for at least $30 a piece, up from 34,000 last year. Owner Gianluca Martino, an electrical engineer, has had to contract out much of the production to keep up with growth.

It’s a peculiar predicament, since the Arduino’s designs are on the Internet for anyone to download and use.While there are clones on the market, the microcontrollers that Mr. Martino produces, with the map of Italy printed on the back of it, are by far the most popular.

“What’s interesting in this kind of open-source project is the feeling of confidence the consumer has,” he says, since people can look up the designs and tailor the Arduino to their needs.

Read the whole article here [ http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703499404574559960271468066.html?mod=article-outset-box ]. Thanks to Justin Lahart (the journalist), some nice investors may read the article and call us back :)