1) Apple had long term contracts for memory which will run out. Afterwards it will be very interesting to see what they do.
2) RPi uses older memory that is much much more expensive to buy in the market as manufacturers have dedicated capacity to newer formats used by AI boxes for KV caches
Not really the Pi's fault - really it's AI causing the massive increase in HW prices (notably RAM in this case) that has really destroyed the market for the Pi's.
Same thing happening for servers, gaming PC's, cell phones, so on.
I really don't know who this is targeted at. As a development board these are extremely expensive and as a mini computer you're far better off with something N100 based or similar.
Ecosystem bought in does not require you to buy the latest and most expensive board.
The Pi 1 model B+ was released in 2014. They still make and support it today and will keep doing it until at least 2030. You can just buy that instead. They are not apple.
Unfortunately Radxa and Milk-V are almost completely out of stock and not much cheaper. If you need more than a microcontroller there's no circumventing the memory shortage at this point.
Kicking myself for not buying the Q6A at the beginning of the year (I wanted three and arace would only sell one per customer, but one would've been better than none).
Two months ago I bought a M4 Mini w/16GB and 512GB HDD for $599. Granted they're up to $799 right now, but a Rpi is now $350 when they used to be $35?
You're correct; they've jumped the shark.
Two things to note:
1) Apple had long term contracts for memory which will run out. Afterwards it will be very interesting to see what they do.
2) RPi uses older memory that is much much more expensive to buy in the market as manufacturers have dedicated capacity to newer formats used by AI boxes for KV caches
The linked model has 16x the amount of RAM that $35 model had. You can still get a 1GB model for less than $50.
You can get an Intel N100 NUC with 16GB ram, 500GB ssd on Amazon for less though.
This is just very expensive for what it is.
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Not really the Pi's fault - really it's AI causing the massive increase in HW prices (notably RAM in this case) that has really destroyed the market for the Pi's.
Same thing happening for servers, gaming PC's, cell phones, so on.
I really don't know who this is targeted at. As a development board these are extremely expensive and as a mini computer you're far better off with something N100 based or similar.
What market is this trying to compete in?
It's targeted at someone who wants a board with some memory on it. Memory prices and supply shortages are insane at the moment
To me it seems like they are just cannibalizing their customer base that bought into their ecosystem early.
Ecosystem bought in does not require you to buy the latest and most expensive board.
The Pi 1 model B+ was released in 2014. They still make and support it today and will keep doing it until at least 2030. You can just buy that instead. They are not apple.
Feels like they’re just surfing the name recognition wave at this point.
This is because on a COGs basis it is memory with a side of compute.
Pi hasn't been a hobbyist computer since they were prioritised for large-volume business purchasers during COVID.
As for the education market, that's a long forgotten pipedream.
Hobbyists spend shittons of money on their hobbies. A drawer full of raspberry pis is nothing.
I think you're overlooking the 16GB part, it's a niche of a niche device... 1GB is still $50
Search Aliexpress for ESP32-C3 Development Board for Arduino
Search arace.tech for Radxa or Milk-V boards.
Unfortunately Radxa and Milk-V are almost completely out of stock and not much cheaper. If you need more than a microcontroller there's no circumventing the memory shortage at this point.
Kicking myself for not buying the Q6A at the beginning of the year (I wanted three and arace would only sell one per customer, but one would've been better than none).
At least get a -C6 if you're trying to replace a Pi with a microcontroller.
ESP32-C6 is $6 but ESP32-C3 is $3 )))