[agumonkey]

What SoC of that class (perf/price) was on shelves when the rpi started ?

[joezydeco]

OMAP3, OMAP4, Sitara, iMX5, iMX6.

The Broadcom part in the RPi was heavily subsidized. Don't be fooled by price here.

[agumonkey]

Yes but still, at that time these SoC alone were above the rpi board price point. If you wanted to sell something aronud 30 you had to do vendor tricks with odd parts.

[joezydeco]

Yes. Embedded engineers do this every day.

BTW the Broadcom part is heavily subsidized.

[nitrogen]

Subsidized by whom? Who is losing money on the RPi?