Is the Raspberry Pi real at that price?

Is the Raspberry Pi real at that price?

formatting link
formatting link

I can't help but think when you sell 10K pieces of an item at bargain basement prices, (and in a single day), and in advance of having the products, that there may be something very wrong.

They have entered into licensed manufacture partnerships with two British companies, Premier Farnell and RS Components. That means there has to be a dealer margin. If you can retail it at $25, then how much did it cost wholesale?

I may be barking up the wrong tree, but am I one of the few sensing something may be very wrong with this deal?

Have a look at what Tsvetan from Olimex said in a forum thread about it here:

formatting link

Anyone have insider information that what I am saying is completely off the mark? Comments?

Of course, If I am off the mark, this will be more free advertising for them. :-)

Cheers Don...

========================

--
Don McKenzie

Dontronics: http://www.dontronics-shop.com/
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Don McKenzie
Loading thread data ...

"Don McKenzie" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@mid.individual.net...

The current version is $35,-. The $25,- version has been announced however.

petrus bitbyter

Reply to
petrus bitbyter

I see it as a cunning plan to wipe out M/soft and all those ancient PCs...

Reply to
TTman

"TTman" schreef in bericht news:jir96q$355$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me...

It certainly attacks some monopolistic behavior of both processor en software giants. As it will not do Windows, it may even become a nail in the MS-coffin. But the design is too light for serious processing power. I merely expect it to become a component more or less like the microprocessor started.

petrus bitbyter

Reply to
petrus bitbyter

I kinda doubt it -- Microsoft Windows 8 will run on ARM. Maybe not the particular one on the Raspberry Pi, but certainly on plenty of other inexpensive, similar chips.

Right -- by the time you turn it into a "real PC" (display, hard drive, keyboard, touchpad, battery, case) and add some profit margins, I think you're largely back to at least the $250-$350 "cheap laptop" that are already quite common.

The cool thing about the Raspberry Pi is that it's quite hackable and that it can be cheap by virtue of the fact that most everyone already has a spare keyboard/mouse sitting around, can use some LCD they already have, etc.

---Joel

Reply to
Joel Koltner

As I understand it, the primary intent is to get inexpensive, programmable devices into the hands of lots of kids, as a learning tool and as an "enabling technology". So, yeah, it and simiar devices are probably being viewed as components and building blocks for all sorts of products, rather than as direct PC replacements.

--
Dave Platt                                    AE6EO
Friends of Jade Warrior home page:  http://www.radagast.org/jade-warrior
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Dave Platt

n the

ssor

Now you get it! The LCD as you call it is your TV, and who doesn't have a keyboard and mouse left over from their Pentium days... opps, they still market the Pentium in the low end machines. As to the hard drive, I've got three of them in my pocket and keep a 16GB one in my computer bag. I saw a 32GB one advertised for $27! I don't remember if the rPi will take a full size SD or if you need a micro.

Rick

Reply to
rickman

How much do you image the real manufacturing cost of, say, an Android smartphone is ?

geoff

Reply to
geoff

I would imagine it could be in the range of 5% to 20% of the retail price, but it must reach the wholesaler at a price he can make a living out of it, otherwise he wouldn't be in business.

Cheers Don...

=========================

--
Don McKenzie

Dontronics: http://www.dontronics-shop.com/
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Don McKenzie

Actually, even Apple isn't able to command that sort of markup with iPhones!

Here's an article that'll give you some more concrete numbers:

formatting link
. As you'll see, most phones cost some 60-70% of their selling price.

The margins in consumer electronics are very thin; it works because there is so much volume. There aren't that many wholesalers left anyway

-- at least in terms of volume, I think it's safe to say the vast majority of electronics goes straight from the manufacturer to a retailer; Wal*Mart and Best Buy aren't getting their phones from a middleman, although some small mom & pop shop likely are.

(Indeed... you sometimes hear small businessmen complain that their costs for products from their wholesalers are more than the retail price from Wal*Mart or Costco...)

---Joel

Reply to
Joel Koltner

Thats not entirely true. Shops like WM,BB and similar often have high costs and usually are not cheap. They sell a few items below cost price to appear cheap but with other things they most certainly are not cheap. They are convenient because they have a large stock of many items. Stock costs money. Smaller shops are cheaper in most cases if they have what you need.

But then again, online shops are the future. Nowadays I even order home improvement stuff online.

That's not a 'small business man' that's someone who shouldn't be in business in the first place.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Nico Coesel

RS Australia has it listed at $50, which is probably about what you'd have to pay to get a $35 item from the UK including shipping.

I will certainly get one as soon as I can, I'd like to see whether it can run apache as a home web server and home automation machine.

A full Linux machine for $50 is disruptive technology, if it does perform as the hype suggests, I see a lot of uses for it, and probably a flood of imitators.

The PIC and Arduino boards certainly have their uses, but horse for courses.

Reply to
keithr

=3D=3D

Really, disruptive technology? Is this really much less than the cost of a smart cell phone which has a user interface and also makes phone calls!

Rick

Reply to
rickman

You cannot physically turn things on and off with that (the phone). All you can do is control the devices which can (these devices).

His can switch relays on and off. The damned things do need a net connection though.

So, look at say the ten times overpriced "industry" that was made by a few for billiard halls to turn the lights on and off,and log play times.

Each "receiver/switch" was very expensive and each table needs one. The software was expensive as well.

This would allow one to control any number of tables for a little over $40 each. And you could author and perfect your own time logging application. You could even put dimmers in and control the light level.

I could sell this, if pool had more popularity. Sadly, operating costs have grown so much that the per hour rate for pool has gotten ridiculous. They even charge per person now in some places instead of per table.

How truly sad. Bastards actually want to make money. It should be popular though.

Dumb folks everywhere would rather give a bar money for liquor though.

Billiards should be more popular.

Reply to
TheGlimmerMan

Show me where your "cheap laptop" (or any laptop practically) has gpio header or a readily available jtag header.

Reply to
WoolyBully

I was discussing with someone that the Pi could be used as a musical instrument: add an inexpensive USB audio/MIDI interface plus some software, hook up a MIDI controller keyboard, and you have a hardware sampler/synthesizer that can stream mega or gigabyte sound "patches" off the memory card. It could probably run the stage lighting if it's DMX equipped. And you're not out a grand if someone spills their beer on it, unlike a laptop.

Reply to
bitrex

Conformal coat it. After you hook everything up to it. :-)

Reply to
TheGlimmerMan

It is retailing at £25 ($40). There is another rival development single board of similar size and lesser capability for about £10 (but much less sophisticated). At least part of the intention is educational to make computing and electronics engineering more interesting to school children. The existing UK syllabus churns out MickeySoft Office drone users with no clue at all how PCs and software work. In a reference back to the BBC Micro they have even called them Models A and B.

I think they expect to sell a lot of them and since the opening day took down both the major UK electronics suppliers websites they could well be right. It is priced to allow every schoolchild to have one.

I reckon they called in a lot of favours to get it designed for maximum capability, minimum cost and built for that price. I wish them good luck with the project. We need to get more youngsters interested in engineering at school as opposed to soft options "meedja studdis".

Brian Cox and Jim Alkalili have already turned round the decline of the hard sciences. The former making Physics very "cool" at the moment!

I expect there isn't a lot of margin but the price isn't completely impossible either. Just look at the cheapest PC graphics cards.

If it becomes the new BBC Micro it will engage a new generation of children in direct connection with real electronics and software at a level where it can be relatively easily understood and played with.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

For this kind of products the costs are not in the hardware but in the software.

--
Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
indicates you are not using the right tools...
 Click to see the full signature
Reply to
Nico Coesel

In many areas, every high school student gets a laptop. It hasn't changed anything outside the school budgets.

I don't see how that follows, either. It may entice some latent code monkeys but I don't see how a finished product like this is going to create a significant number of budding engineers. That's a tough one, given the level of integration today.

Never heard of them but it looks cool.

Amazing.

I don't see how a canned computer interests anyone in electronics. Software, maybe. More script kiddies, sure. I don't see the latter as being particularly useful (in the global economy), though.

Reply to
krw

ElectronDepot website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.