Re: Mould breakers
> Now try to do the same thing again on a larger or longer scale. E.g. ten off, to be built in ten different places, with identical components and software (and documentation), ideally with CE-marked or equivalently certfied stuff, ideally reproducible compatibly over (say) a three year period, where the target market isn't the stereotype electronics/IT geek.
There's something to this, not least because you're likely to get at least some economies of scale if bulk-buying components.
OTOH, things have moved on quite a lot since the Pi was launched in 2012 and it's hard to compete with the economies of scale (and hardware integration) which have been applied to mobile phone manufacturing.
Even low-end Android mobile handsets have pretty impressive feature set - the lowest-spec handset currently being flogged by Carphone Warehouse has 512mb ram, 4GB storage, a 1.3ghz quadcore processor, a 2MP camera, wifi, gyros, GPS, bluetooth, etc.
For £50, sim-free. Admittedly, the handset in question has been savaged in the reviews and I haven't checked to see if it's boot-locked, but it's cheap, pre-assembled (so both tested and environmentally sealed to at least some degree) and relatively easy/cheap to develop for. And I'm assuming that anything CW sells will have at least some certification.
There's always going to be cases where you need to build some specifically tailored hardware, or where you want more flexibility and/or more security than can be offered via a standard handset.
And the Pi and it's ilk are very strong when it comes to dealing with sensor readings and control of external machinery - 3D printers, garage doors, hunter-killer robots, etc.
Plus, from an enthusiast's perspective, building something with a Pi is just more fun ;)
But for a lot of things these days, there's an app for that. And even if there isn't, it's generally cheaper and easier to write software than build hardware!
Biting the hand that feeds IT
