Today we unveiled the Arrow Open Lab at Hong Kong Science Park, signifying a new milestone in Arrow’s support of innovation and technology development in Hong Kong and the Asia-Pacific region.
SAM Car was also on-site to illustrate how technology can help enhance people’s lives. We showcased the award-winning vehicle at the “APAC Innovation Summit 2016 Series — Robotics” conference hosted by Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP).
“The Arrow Open Lab is available to all technology entrepreneurs, companies and organizations pursuing innovation and product development in Hong Kong,” said Simon Yu, president, Asia-Pacific Components. “It aims to help developers significantly enhance product design, shorten the development cycle and reduce costs.”
Simon Yu, president, Asia-Pacific Components, in the newly launched Arrow Open Lab.
Turning innovative ideas into sustainable businesses
According to the Global Startup Ecosystem Ranking study, Hong Kong is the fifth fastest-growing startup ecosystem in the world. InvestHK’s latest survey indicated that there were 1,558 startups as of August 2015, an increase of 46 percent over the previous year.
While Hong Kong technology startups and enterprises are known to be good at understanding market demand, developing ideas, IP research, product design and software development, they usually lack support in engineering expertise, especially in areas such as wireless connectivity, sensing and controlling, and system integration. That’s where Arrow comes in. Our aim through Open Lab is to bridge these shortcomings and accelerate the turn of innovative ideas into sustainable businesses that reach to overseas markets.
The timeline to develop a consumer device is usually five to seven months. Services provided by Arrow can help enterprises shave up to four months of development time and up to 25 percent of engineering design costs. More importantly, as a trusted advisor we will guide developers on how to improve their system design, and support them throughout the development cycle — from formulation and proof-of-design concept, component sourcing, and rapid prototyping and testing, to system integration and pre-production verification.
Simon Yu (right) and Fanny Law Fan Chiu-fun, chairman, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (middle), in front of SAM Car.
Inside Open Lab
Open Lab occupies nearly 3,000 square feet and is equipped with state-of-the-art engineering equipment and testing modules. More than a dozen experienced vertical segment experts and engineers are on hand to provide advice in areas of embedded computing, sensing, connectivity and system integration. Use of the lab space and expert advice are free of charge for registered members.
Arrow aims to support more than 3,000 visits to Open Lab in the first year of the facility’s operation.