[apiguy]

Likely low powered computing scenarios. Think set-top boxes, kiosks, cash registers, etc. Anywhere you want to use very cheap hardware basically.

[unnouinceput]

Cheaper then Raspberry Pi? With $15 for Zero variant? How much cheaper then that you can do really?

I'd say RPI it's the best in that regard. Also fully fledged Linux there, not some pet project OS.

[exikyut]

Very cheap _x86_ hardware, to be specific.

I'm not sure if it's actually more expensive to find VIA et al based systems for cheaper than NUCs?

[snvzz]

I don't know if VIA still does any of that.

But there's Vortex86.