I'm a rpi enthusiast. Why? Probably because of the narrative of good. Let me explain.
RPI Foundation is a tale of geeks doing good. Not so much by stating it as an outspoken slogan like Google with "Don't be evil" in their early days, but simply by quietly holding on to an original idea of providing cheap but sturdy and reliable hardware for education. Just to make it possible for any kid to get enthusiastic and knowledgeable about computer programming and hardware. Any kid in the world they say, because developing-world markets are explicitly mentioned for the rpi-400 and rpi-500 form factor.
It started in May 2009 as a registered charity and I consider it a wondrous miracle that it still exists. It survived the COVID years of shortage. Per 11 June 2024 it lives on as the charity part of the public RASPBERRY PI HOLDINGS company on LSE, and as the main shareholder of Raspberry Pi Ltd which is the commercial part that takes care of trading and manufacturing. I suspect the fact that industry discovered the quality of their products and RPI discovered industry as a profitable market has helped. But their focus on education and less so on industry and enthusiasts when considering new products still exists. A very easy trap to fall into would have been to go with the cry for more (performance and better connectors) from makers and hobbyists. But they stuck to the "as cheap and tiny as possible" strategy while modestly upgrading, upholding quality standards and staying within budget for education.
They are on a turning point though. Any SBC with 8GB RAM and decent 64-bit multi-core processor has enough power for comfortably doing all regular no-gaming computer stuff. The rpi 500 kit combined with their own portable screen is such a device and I gather this will attract a new consumer market aged roughly between 4-14 and 64-104. It looks good, performs OK, and with a good-for-quality one-time cost and extremely-good running cost, this is their potential hit for 2025. And will that now change their focus away from education towards more profitable markets?
Profit margin on rpi 500 is intentionally tightened though, and I expect this new consumer market not becoming a priority market, like industry hasn't become one before. While industry is by far their biggest market (around 70% of sales come from industry), it seems to me that specifically aiming new products to it hasn't had priority focus. I'm aware of the recently presented Pi Pico 2 board and RP2350 micro controller, the compute models 3,4,5 with accompanying io boards and even a case for cm5, but that's a tiny fraction of the rpi product portfolio, even if I may have missed out on some. If it would have had that focus, the image of "more than mere profit" would have suffered, and that could have influenced the massive size of the community that is inspired by it and uses and supports their products now.
This image is the goodwill that attracted me in the first place and with me I suspect many others. It is this narrative of good that lacks big tech companies. They chase tech users away with their aggressive sales and advertising policies, eventually ruining it for everyone. And for some this friendlier Linux landscape, with open source software, with hardware that can be adjusted to need and experimented with, offer an alternative to using their products. RPI is such an alternative, it tells a friendly and somewhat geeky tale, their products have a "doing more with less" quality (have a look at the rpi5 bumper and the simplistic but inventive stand on the back of their portable screen) and a sympathy factor big tech does not have. It certainly triggered some of my enthusiasm. I do hope future developments will not cause any diminishing of that emotion.
Last week I supported RPI in staying with their current market focus on education by NOT buying the rpi 500 kit ( this hurts.. for more than a year and despite having any practical use for it, I really wanted one! ) but buying a rpi zero 2W instead with the official power brick. My Christmas treat came in the form of some expensive extras (compared to the cost of a rpi zero 2W): an Argon Pod enclosure with Pods HDMI and LAN/USB added to it. The upcoming UPS Pod will finish this handsome setup as my main rpi test rig. Another Christmas treat was the nearly doubling of my rpi stock value because of surprise big end-of-year buying from the US. But if their value halves again, I promise to still support them, provided they stay focused on the good and geek.
RPI Foundation is a tale of geeks doing good. Not so much by stating it as an outspoken slogan like Google with "Don't be evil" in their early days, but simply by quietly holding on to an original idea of providing cheap but sturdy and reliable hardware for education. Just to make it possible for any kid to get enthusiastic and knowledgeable about computer programming and hardware. Any kid in the world they say, because developing-world markets are explicitly mentioned for the rpi-400 and rpi-500 form factor.
It started in May 2009 as a registered charity and I consider it a wondrous miracle that it still exists. It survived the COVID years of shortage. Per 11 June 2024 it lives on as the charity part of the public RASPBERRY PI HOLDINGS company on LSE, and as the main shareholder of Raspberry Pi Ltd which is the commercial part that takes care of trading and manufacturing. I suspect the fact that industry discovered the quality of their products and RPI discovered industry as a profitable market has helped. But their focus on education and less so on industry and enthusiasts when considering new products still exists. A very easy trap to fall into would have been to go with the cry for more (performance and better connectors) from makers and hobbyists. But they stuck to the "as cheap and tiny as possible" strategy while modestly upgrading, upholding quality standards and staying within budget for education.
They are on a turning point though. Any SBC with 8GB RAM and decent 64-bit multi-core processor has enough power for comfortably doing all regular no-gaming computer stuff. The rpi 500 kit combined with their own portable screen is such a device and I gather this will attract a new consumer market aged roughly between 4-14 and 64-104. It looks good, performs OK, and with a good-for-quality one-time cost and extremely-good running cost, this is their potential hit for 2025. And will that now change their focus away from education towards more profitable markets?
Profit margin on rpi 500 is intentionally tightened though, and I expect this new consumer market not becoming a priority market, like industry hasn't become one before. While industry is by far their biggest market (around 70% of sales come from industry), it seems to me that specifically aiming new products to it hasn't had priority focus. I'm aware of the recently presented Pi Pico 2 board and RP2350 micro controller, the compute models 3,4,5 with accompanying io boards and even a case for cm5, but that's a tiny fraction of the rpi product portfolio, even if I may have missed out on some. If it would have had that focus, the image of "more than mere profit" would have suffered, and that could have influenced the massive size of the community that is inspired by it and uses and supports their products now.
This image is the goodwill that attracted me in the first place and with me I suspect many others. It is this narrative of good that lacks big tech companies. They chase tech users away with their aggressive sales and advertising policies, eventually ruining it for everyone. And for some this friendlier Linux landscape, with open source software, with hardware that can be adjusted to need and experimented with, offer an alternative to using their products. RPI is such an alternative, it tells a friendly and somewhat geeky tale, their products have a "doing more with less" quality (have a look at the rpi5 bumper and the simplistic but inventive stand on the back of their portable screen) and a sympathy factor big tech does not have. It certainly triggered some of my enthusiasm. I do hope future developments will not cause any diminishing of that emotion.
Last week I supported RPI in staying with their current market focus on education by NOT buying the rpi 500 kit ( this hurts.. for more than a year and despite having any practical use for it, I really wanted one! ) but buying a rpi zero 2W instead with the official power brick. My Christmas treat came in the form of some expensive extras (compared to the cost of a rpi zero 2W): an Argon Pod enclosure with Pods HDMI and LAN/USB added to it. The upcoming UPS Pod will finish this handsome setup as my main rpi test rig. Another Christmas treat was the nearly doubling of my rpi stock value because of surprise big end-of-year buying from the US. But if their value halves again, I promise to still support them, provided they stay focused on the good and geek.
Statistics: Posted by HanDonotob — Mon Dec 30, 2024 7:26 pm