Is Sparkfun going to sell the Raspberry Pi when it is released? http://www.raspberrypi.org/
Please?
I think the purpose of that board is to make the hardware as cheap as possible to enable more people to have access to computer. By doing that, I don’t think there’s room for reseller to make profit. The price itself is $25-$35 for such a complete device!
Well, I would buy it even if it would cost 50$, because even at that price, it is brilliant piece of hardware that beats even some more expensive embedded computers in that price range (0-99$).
But if Sparkfun carries it, then wont it be available to more people? Just add 10 bucks (for profit) to the price tag, and people will still buy it.
I seriously doubt these guys can hit their target price point of $25 for the basic (no Ethernet) and $35 for the board with Ethernet. However even with the cost over-runs that they are about to discover I think $45 will be a plausible expectation. And yes I do agree even at $50 I will definitely get one. Nothing else comes close to that price level that has HDMI and can play 1080p (as shown on their demo You Tube) with sound of course via HDMI. That is just totally impressive.
Now the economics for us might be disappointing with shipping from the UK at $20 or so… But then again the alternatives set the market base line. Beagle Bone or the other Adafruit boards ? LOL?
So a TCO of $80 for having the board at your U.S. doorstep is still a great value. Now if Sparkfun can hit these guys for a volume price break and economies of scale on the shipping, presumably straight from China, then we are talking!
The new BeagleBone ($89) would be more suitable for Sparkfun’s customer base:
It’s intended for hardware hackers, unlike the Raspberry Pi, and provides a reasonable profit for the seller.
I got one a couple of days ago from Farnell. It’s very impressive.
This is where they are at [[Bare bones Raspberry Pi PC gets ready to launch](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16316439)ds18s20:
I seriously doubt these guys can hit their target price point of $25 for the basic (no Ethernet) and $35 for the board with Ethernet. However even with the cost over-runs that they are about to discover I think $45 will be a plausible expectation. And yes I do agree even at $50 I will definitely get one. Nothing else comes close to that price level that has HDMI and can play 1080p (as shown on their demo You Tube) with sound of course via HDMI. That is just totally impressive.
In my post [here, I mentioned a 7in. tablet that for <$45 comes with an 800MHz ARM, 800x480 TFT LCD with Touch, 256MB RAM, 2GB FLASH, 1080p Video, Camera, Micro-SD, WiFi, lithium battery, etc.](About same olimex board replacement - SparkFun Electronics Forum)](Bare bones Raspberry Pi PC gets ready to launch - BBC News)
The new BeagleBone ($89) would be more suitable for Sparkfun’s customer base:
Agreed IF only IMHO that board had HDMI. Otherwise to hook up a $89 board to watch text messages on a serial console… We have $20 Linksys routers for that 
leon_heller:
The new BeagleBone ($89) would be more suitable for Sparkfun’s customer base:It’s intended for hardware hackers, unlike the Raspberry Pi, and provides a reasonable profit for the seller.
I got one a couple of days ago from Farnell. It’s very impressive.
and it looks like, unlike the raspberrypi, you can actually get a real datasheet for the processor on the beagleboard
Yes, full documentation is available, as it’s a standard TI part. It also delivers more performance than the processor used on the Pi.
I also thought the 1080p HDMI on the raspberry looked very tasty. But when I read that no docs are available for the SOC unless (ha) you can negotiate an NDA with Broadcomm, I started thinking of it as sour-grapes pi.
I also picked up a beagleboard. First impression is that the gulf between bit-banging an STM32 and writing a linux device driver looks pretty steep (not to mix metaphors or anything.)
My impression is that Spark Fun is a more-added-value / higher-overhead operation than the major distributors, so it probably won’t be in their best interest to carry many items that are also sold at Newark etc.