Sun Microsystems Inc is currently in the throes of trying to sign one of the largest US distribution companies, Arrow Electronics Inc, to distribute its kit to resellers that already sell competitive equipment from Altos Computer Systems Inc, NCR Corp, Unisys Corp and AT&T Co. The deal, if it goes through, would be signed in the next few weeks with Arrow’s Computer Systems Group, which services perhaps a couple of thousand resellers. Sun is believed to be after only a couple of hundred of those – resellers with solid commercial applications that would be converted to run under SunOS. The deal, which would bring Sun into new channels of distribution, is believed to be regarded as merely incremental business to Sun, worth maybe $20m to $30m a year despite its aggressive anti-competitive veneer. It would also doubtless take months before the first resellers moved their software over. Some months ago, Sun delegated distributor Access Graphics to handle its smaller technical resellers. A companion deal for commercial resellers was in the works with Tech Data but failed to materialise. Arrow is not the replacement for Tech Data and as a matter of fact Access Graphics will now be fulfilling many of Sun’s commercial accounts. Sun also started into dealer channels when the Sparcstation IPC was brought out and according to Sun, MicroAge Inc now has between 25 and 30 sites reselling Sparcs with the expectation of going to 40 or 50 in the next three months, and Intelligent Electronics Inc, currently with 30 to 40 stores dealing in Suns, should increase that number to 60 by June.
