Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User) [LWN.net]

Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

Posted Mar 7, 2012 7:40 UTC (Wed) by geuder (subscriber, #62854)
Parent article: Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

> Somebody in that Beagleboard value chain has got to be making a pile of money – I mean, $175 for a Pandaboard or $100 for a Beagleboard?

He answers a big part of the question himself. If you employ 10 people here it costs you 10 * 100,000 EUR / year. Engineers a bit more, people running your office a bit less, but don't let's make it too scientific now. That's 1 million EUR / year. If you sell 10,000 boards (because they cost 150 EUR many people will hesitate to actually buy one), that's 100 EUR of salaries per board. After that you start to discuss the BOM.

If you are a charity and work (mainly) with unpaid/sponsored resources who have earned their living and a bit more elsewhere the story is a whole lot different.

So one "pile of money" goes to ordinary engineers like me and many other readers here who enjoy the salaries paid in this industry in industrial countries/western world whatever you'd like to call it. (Of course there are some capitalists that make even a lot more money than we do, but I doubt from selling Pandaboards.) Western engineering salaries are not an issue if you sell 10s of millions of devices. But for everything smaller scale they are the killer.

Disclaimer: I have absolute no idea how many boards are realistically sold. But I have the strong feeling the GTA04 people could really be happy if they could plan with 10,000 pieces.

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Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

Posted Mar 7, 2012 9:12 UTC (Wed) by neilbrown (subscriber, #359) [Link] (5 responses)

> But I have the strong feeling the GTA04 people could really be happy if they could plan with 10,000 pieces.

Definitely! Right now we are just aiming for 350 pre-orders so we can get some made at a slightly more accessible price.

http://www.handheld-linux.com/wiki.php?page=GTA04%20Group...

(currently at 39% of that target - your order could help :-)

Oh: and we are very close to being able to provide the complete phone: main board, display, misc bits (antenna, speakers etc) and case from shapeways.

http://lists.goldelico.com/pipermail/gta04-owner/2012-Mar...
http://www.shapeways.com/shops/slyon

(sorry for the sales pitch - but it was such a good opening :-)

GTA04 and its audience

Posted Mar 7, 2012 11:01 UTC (Wed) by pboddie (guest, #50784) [Link]

I am reading messages on the GTA04 list, but I'm not subscribed. Certainly, the progress being made all round is very encouraging, but the availability of a usable case seems to be something of a breakthrough: if the initiative could widen its audience beyond existing GTA02 owners by offering complete devices, it would probably change the perception of the project for much of the potential audience from not being of direct interest - purely because most people are not technically eligible to participate - to something suddenly worth buying.

I think a lot of people are hesitant to put down good money for something that they aren't sure they will be able to use. If people could buy something that serves their basic needs, a lot of the exciting stuff could be added later. Indeed, most people would probably be tempted to get involved purely to do the exciting stuff, not getting the device to make calls and stay on the network and other supposedly less exciting things.

Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

Posted Mar 8, 2012 21:06 UTC (Thu) by btraynor (guest, #26672) [Link] (1 responses)

I would love to pre-preorder one of these, but they're simply to expensive.

Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

Posted Mar 8, 2012 21:48 UTC (Thu) by neilbrown (subscriber, #359) [Link]

What would you do with it? If you could contribute in some concrete way (code? case design? accessories?), put a proposal on

http://wiki.openmoko.org/wiki/GTA04_Group_Tour_Donations_Hub

There are people willing to subsidise purchases for probably collaborators.

Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

Posted Mar 8, 2012 22:12 UTC (Thu) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link] (1 responses)

Now THAT is customization. I love the idea of tweaking a cadfile and printing my own case on Shapeways. Suck it iPhone laser engraving! :)

In my experience, 3D printing is stout where the walls are thick enough but thin stuff like clip tabs and flanges just break off. Most prototypes I've played with have been rather heavy and screwed together.

Any idea on how these cases will stand up in the real world?

Raspberry Pi interview: Eben Upton reveals all (Linux User)

Posted Mar 9, 2012 20:21 UTC (Fri) by neilbrown (subscriber, #359) [Link]

I have no personal experience, but apparently if you choose the right material you can get quite good results.

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybT9kdhmurM

All the case pieces were "printed" by shapeways.