Just released, Raspberry Pi 2, x6 faster and Quad core, still $35, (IoT)Win10

[Nothingness]

You can buy little atom based thumb drive shaped mini PCs for just over $100.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2015-latest-Meegopad-Intel-Quad-Core_60038541335.html

You just have to order 500 pieces :biggrin:

It is only a matter of time before these specs are available for $50.

Yeah sure, with heavy subsidies. Ask Intel they are very good at this.

Raspberry pi really should be a LOT cheaper than it is.

And you base this assertion on what?

 

[sxr7171]

Honestly, ARM had it's best chance to break into the traditional PC space in 2012 with Windows RT, but it didn't.

Microsoft committed billions of dollars to sell Windows on ARM to consumers. But not only was it not successful, it was a complete failure. Microsoft even had Nvidia and Qualcomm in their corner. Microsoft sold WoA as Windows RT, but it was a Windows that couldn't run Windows program. As all those windows programs only run on the Intel compatible processors they were written for. It was familiarity and compatibility that consumers cared most for, not performance or cost.

Today, new generations of Intel chips have reduced costs and improved low power performance. Today the value proposition of ARM versus Intel is lower than it was 2012 and we've seen the opposite shift taking place. Intel is gaining ground over ARM in operating systems with no x86 legacy, like chrome OS.

ARM will probably never get a better opportunity than its already had, so I'm of the opinion its never going to happen(in the foreseeable future).

MS is the kind of company that can spend billions and just p*** it away. Seriously between Zune, Danger and Xbox (has that reported a profit yet?) they have shown this.

The problem was WinRT IMHO is a horse/cart issue. They rolled it out with big money and forgot that maybe it need a killer app. Maybe the ecosystem needed some work. Maybe there needed to be a compelling reason to use it. Now we have $99 Intel Atom based full Win 8.1 tablets so I guess it won't be coming back to ARM again.

All I'm saying is that MS screwing up something does not invalidate the concept. They are just great at screwing up things. I say this as a user of Win 8.1 on several machines and that OS has actually been great to me.

 

[sxr7171]

You can buy little atom based thumb drive shaped mini PCs for just over $100.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/2015-latest-Meegopad-Intel-Quad-Core_60038541335.html

It is only a matter of time before these specs are available for $50. Raspberry pi really should be a LOT cheaper than it is.

I could use a small $99 device that runs WMC. Can't believe I still use that.

 

[Maximilian]

Thread about rpi2 and the discussion centers around windows

Its not like it will run full windows 10, and even if it could running windows on an rpi is nuts anyway when theres a horde of better free options available.

 

[erunion]

All I'm saying is that MS screwing up something does not invalidate the concept.

I agree, but that's not what my conclusion was based on. You've overlooked my second point: ARM isn't going to get a better opportunity.

WinRT, even with whatever flaws it may have had; was the right product, at the right time, with the right support. What are the chances of a repeat?
The next attempt, if one ever comes, likely won't have multiple billions in support, it won't have the benefit of such a favorable "ARM is the future" zeitgeist, and it will face a post Bay-trail intel.

In 2012 the opinion leaders expected Intel to be locked out of the new mobile OS, and for ARM to start make inroads in the traditional PC market. Now in 2015, we've witnessed something different. ARM has not moved into the PC market, but Intel has shipped 40 million android devices.

So my conclusion is that over the past several years ARMs chances of moving being able to move in the PC have decreased dramatically, and will continue to decrease.

 

[sxr7171]

I agree, but that's not what my conclusion was based on. You've overlooked my second point: ARM isn't going to get a better opportunity.

WinRT, even with whatever flaws it may have had; was the right product, at the right time, with the right support. What are the chances of a repeat?
The next attempt, if one ever comes, likely won't have multiple billions in support, it won't have the benefit of such a favorable "ARM is the future" zeitgeist, and it will face a post Bay-trail intel.

In 2012 the opinion leaders expected Intel to be locked out of the new mobile OS, and for ARM to start make inroads in the traditional PC market. Now in 2015, we've witnessed something different. ARM has not moved into the PC market, but Intel has shipped 40 million android devices.

So my conclusion is that over the past several years ARMs chances of moving being able to move in the PC have decreased dramatically, and will continue to decrease.

I have to agree unless Apple does something. Which I sort of doubt.

 

[Shivansps]

People don't buy components, they buy integrated products.

Outside of my professional circles of engineers and professionals, I don't have a single family member or friend who has a clue whether their product is running windows RT, iOS, Android, on an ARM or custom A8 or other.

The fraction of the market that knows the innards of what they buy, or the technical details of the product, must be really really small based on my perceptions of the hundred or so people I interact with in real life who themselves clearly have no clue what makes their favored device be their favored device.

What I see them citing as their reasons for liking their device are reasons that come down to being all about features. And to them software is a feature, apps are a feature.

Can they get app XYZ on their device ABC? If yes, then that is a "feature".

Are they comfortable with using device ABC? Is it "familiar"? To them that is a feature.

And at the end of the day the question for them is "do I want to spend money for the features I could have (if I spent the money and upgraded) versus keeping my current device and the features I already have?"

IMO Windows RT failed because it failed to provide a compelling enough feature list (apps, familiarity, social panache, curb appeal, marketing, etc) to enable it to gain the requisite market traction so as to become self-sustaining.

That a Microsoft exec went to Nokia and delivered a similar deathblow to their product line is either pure coincidence or lightening striking twice, or possibly both. That Microsoft then decided their best foot forward would be to purchase Nokia is proof that irony never goes out of style.

When someone buy a Windows product they expect to be able to use the same programs and have a similar software ecosystem experience, they buy it because its something they know, then it turns out its not like the Windows they really known for years.

There is just no easy way to fix that, its gona take years, and years of getting use people to use something else, like they tryied with ModernUI and also failed badly, now they need to "trick" people intro using ModernUI apps instead of Windows ones, in order for ARM Windows to get anywhere, and they gona try that with Windows 10.