WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Microduino, Inc., an award-winning global designer, developer, manufacturer, and seller of LEGO®-compatible stackable electronic building blocks, related components, and in-class science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning systems, today announced it has signed an agreement with San Jose, Calif.-based Fry’s Electronics, one of America’s leading personal computer (PC) and consumer electronics retailers, through which the chain will sell four Microduino STEM education toys via www.frys.com and all 34 of its brick-and-mortar locations in nine states.
The new Fry’s partnership aggressively expands Microduino’s nationwide retail presence and direct-to-consumer (DTC) product distribution, and further demonstrates the company’s ongoing traction with major, high-profile retail brands strategically invested in offering cutting-edge STEM education toys and learning systems to their respective customers. The company already sells its products through Barnes & Noble and Amazon. In addition, the increased Microduino product availability through Fry’s and other widely-accessible retail channels strongly positions the company for robust consumer sales during the critical back-to-school and holiday shopping periods, the two largest sales seasons of the year.
The agreement calls for Fry’s to sell four Microduino offerings, including its best-selling Itty Bitty City project kit, as part of the retailer’s ever-growing assortment of STEM education toys and instructional products targeted at children, parents, and highly-passionate makers, inventors, hobbyists, and electronics enthusiasts.
“This deal with Fry’s Electronics is a crucial component of Microduino’s consumer marketing strategy, and another important step forward in making the company’s STEM education products more broadly available and accessible to children, parents, and hobbyists through high-volume retail channels,” said Bin Feng, co-founder and chief executive officer of Microduino, and a principal architect of the underlying technology and hardware platform contained in the products sold at Fry’s. “As STEM education continues to gather momentum in U.S. schools and around the world, access to affordable, high-quality STEM education toys and learning systems, such as those from Microduino, both in and out of the classroom is critical to preparing current and future generations of scientists, technologists, and engineers. Our colleagues at Fry’s share this vision and commitment, and that accounts for the retailer’s extraordinary interest in this rapidly-growing space and its willingness to add Microduino to its product mix in this area.”
“As a retailer with a long history of catering to technology professionals and electronics enthusiasts of all ages, Fry’s believes the STEM education toy category is poised for accelerated growth and mass-market adoption,” said John Fry, co-founder and chief executive officer of Fry’s Electronics. “As a result, the company is investing heavily in this area by building out prominent in-store and online displays of related products, identifying high-quality offerings that meet Fry’s exacting standards, actively promoting these products through multiple marketing channels, and forging distribution relationships with innovative, reputable original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Microduino. We expect STEM education toys from Microduino and other developers to be hot sellers during this year’s back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons.”
Product Descriptions, Pricing and Availability
The
following four Microduino products are now available at all 34 Fry’s
stores and online at www.frys.com:
-
Itty Bitty City (IBC): Created for hobbyists, makers,
inventors, and tinkerers, Microduino’s best-selling Itty Bitty City is
a fun-filled collection of sensors, accessories, and mCookie modules,
easy-to-use, LEGO®-compatible, and stackable electronic
building blocks that act as the core technology of all Microduino
products. Creators use these components to build eight cool and
exciting projects, such as a windmill, lighthouse, night light, piggy
bank, and music box. Because of its fun and unique applications, Itty
Bitty City is also widely used by students and teachers within
schools’ STEM/STEAM programs.
Price: $129.00
Information: http://microduinoinc.com/educational-tool-itty-bitty-city
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102 Basic Kit: Microduino’s 102 Basic Kit is a
do-it-yourself, easily-connectable, modular electronics kit that
contains a set of beginner-friendly mCookie modules. With other
components such as a LED light, buzzer, and light and touch sensors,
this product is perfect for beginners who want to learn more about
product design, coding, and electronics. The Basic Kit introduces
novices to the world of coding via easy-to-learn, drag-and-drop
platforms Scratch and Mixly, which make programming fun and simple.
Price: $89.00
Information: http://microduinoinc.com/microduino-mcookie-basic-kit
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202 Advanced Kit: Building on the skills learned in the Basic
Kit, Microduino’s 202 Advanced Kit is a fun, exciting and
multi-faceted project collection designed for every level of maker,
from beginner to expert. This product contains all of the Basic Kit’s
components, plus even more cool mCookie modules and sensors, including
a remote control, microphone, infrared receiver, and joystick, to
design and build more sophisticated projects. In addition, the
Advanced Kit offers an Audio Pro module, which allows makers to add
sound and music to their designs, and an OLED screen display for
showing off eye-popping visual effects with each creation. As with the
Basic Kit, the Advance Kit’s projects can be programmed and modified
using Scratch and Mixly.
Price: $209.00
Information: https://microduinoinc.com/advanced-kit
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302 Expert Kit: The company’s largest collection of mCookie
modules and sensors, Microduino’s 302 Expert Kit presents nearly an
endless array of project design possibilities limited only by one’s
imagination and creativity. With tons of components to choose from,
this product also adds motors to put projects in motion; a motion
module to detect movement and orientation with its built-in gyroscope
and accelerometer; and a WiFi module which connects designs online to
create Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
Price: $359.00
Information: http://microduinoinc.com/expert-kit
Microduino, Itty Bitty City, mCookie, mPie and mPuzzle are registered
trademarks of Microduino, Inc.
All other company names,
product titles, publisher names, trademarks, artwork, and associated
imagery are trademarks, registered trademarks, and/or copyright material
of their respective owners.
About Microduino, Inc.
Founded in 2012, and based in Westlake Village, Calif., Microduino is an award-winning global designer, developer, manufacturer and seller of stackable electronic building blocks, related components, and in-class science, technology, engineer and mathematics (STEM) learning systems which encourage and enhance inventors’ creativity, imagination, and ingenuity through project-based learning. With tailored STEM/STEAM offerings for individual consumers and schools, Microduino offers a broad range of modules, sensors, and project kits which improve critical thinking and problem-solving abilities, while enabling inventors to bring their inspirational and pioneering creations to life. Because of their ease of use, unique patented hardware design, and nearly unlimited applications and configurations, Microduino products have spawned a passionate and highly-innovative worldwide community of students, faculty members, makers, engineers, and electronics enthusiasts of all ages, backgrounds, and skill sets. For more information, please visit Microduinoinc.com, and follow the company on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
About Fry’s Electronics
Based in San Jose, Calif., and one of America's leading retailers of computers and consumer electronics products, Fry’s Electronics was founded in 1985 as a Silicon Valley retail electronics store to provide a one-stop-shopping environment for the high-tech professional. Fry's is home of fast, friendly, and knowledgeable service, and continues to keep technology professionals supplied with products representing the latest technological trends and advances in the electronics marketplace. Fry’s retails over 50,000 electronics items within each of its 34 stores located in nine states. For more information, please visit www.frys.com, and follow the company on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
