This is my job. I design consumer electronics that ship in volumes larger than the raspberry pi. You've probably used something I've designed before. The backseat engineering by software devs in these threads is annoying and presumptuous. The pi designers aren't incompetent, they've probably rolled up dozens of feature BOMs to find what they can afford to ship.
Now, I wouldn't be surprised if it was 50c instead of 1$, but _nothing_ is 5-10c, so you're off by an order of magnitude. Even a single transistor in a package is a few cents. Additionally, if they add the IC they still need a connector, and those are some of the more expensive components in a device like the pi, probably 25c-1$ depending on quality.
> I can buy that chip that also happens to come with a PCB...
You're right that the economics don't seem to make sense, but you made several mistaken assumptions:
1) The price of that device is _almost entirely_ driven by the cost of the IC. Those designs have almost no supporting electronics, and the PCB itself will be 10-20c.
2) You're overestimating the margins. It's probably not delivered to the retailer for 2$, closer to 3$. Generic electronics are not high margin.
3) In cheap, commodity devices the manufacturer can use grey-market ICs, but the pi designers can't get away with that. That easily doubles the IC price.
> This is my job. I design consumer electronics that ship in volumes larger than the raspberry pi. You've probably used something I've designed before.
Fair enough. Thanks for your explanation.
> The pi designers aren't incompetent, they've probably rolled up dozens of feature BOMs to find what they can afford to ship.
That's a borderline straw man argument. You're seem to be implying that I either wrote (or think) that they are incompetent, while none of those things are true.
> Now, I wouldn't be surprised if it was 50c instead of 1$, but _nothing_ is 5-10c, so you're off by an order of magnitude.
Okay, let's say it's 50 cents. I would still think it makes sense to include this feature. Also, that's "half a magnitude off" compared to 10 cents, not a magnitude off.
This is my job. I design consumer electronics that ship in volumes larger than the raspberry pi. You've probably used something I've designed before. The backseat engineering by software devs in these threads is annoying and presumptuous. The pi designers aren't incompetent, they've probably rolled up dozens of feature BOMs to find what they can afford to ship.
Now, I wouldn't be surprised if it was 50c instead of 1$, but _nothing_ is 5-10c, so you're off by an order of magnitude. Even a single transistor in a package is a few cents. Additionally, if they add the IC they still need a connector, and those are some of the more expensive components in a device like the pi, probably 25c-1$ depending on quality.
> I can buy that chip that also happens to come with a PCB...
You're right that the economics don't seem to make sense, but you made several mistaken assumptions:
1) The price of that device is _almost entirely_ driven by the cost of the IC. Those designs have almost no supporting electronics, and the PCB itself will be 10-20c.
2) You're overestimating the margins. It's probably not delivered to the retailer for 2$, closer to 3$. Generic electronics are not high margin.
3) In cheap, commodity devices the manufacturer can use grey-market ICs, but the pi designers can't get away with that. That easily doubles the IC price.