[corin_]

I don't think they'll receive nearly as much general interest as the touchpad, one is a device that consumers can see as "like an iPad, but amazingly cheap", the other as "a programmable system for geeks".

Certainly I know friends who bought the fire sale touchpads, and many more who would have if they had the chance, none of which will be buying the raspberry pi - except the really techy ones.

Also, to do with the press it will get. Articles of "huge fire sale, get one while you can!" will be replaced with "this could change education" and "look what you could create with these" pieces.

Don't get me wrong, they will be hugely popular, and 10,000 is far less than the number of touchpads there were. It will also depend, obviously, on the per-customer limits they put in place.

I certainly expect them to sell out fast (will it be minutes, hours or days, I have no idea), but to compare the level of interest to the touchpad fire sale is huge exaggeration.

[ChuckMcM]

I thought about putting an order in for 10K boards. I think if you look at the 'tv dongles' which is basically a small system running a flavor of Linux driving a TV [1] you'll find at $35 each they are a no-brainer. Here's a dead simple idea, TV dongle with Web cam for 'facetime' on your TV. If you've got a cable IP network, you use Skype or some variation (hell Google talk w/ Video) and you're done. Plastic molded case and poof.

Using the camera and simple gestures (think Kincect 0.5) make an instant 'hangout' using G+ on your TV. Wave your hand, point at your circle, and blam start hanging out.

I've got like a zillion ideas of ways to turn a $35 board with HDMI+Networking into serious bank. I'm not unique in this regard.

[1] http://www.alwaysinnovating.com/products/hdmidongle.htm

[noonespecial]

I really hope projects like RasPi speedily dispatch companies like that one into irrelevance. Their entire business model seems to be taking some open source, putting it into a poorly made prototype and then slathering the whole mess with patents. They don't make anything but bills and lawsuits.

Tiny full-fledged networked computers that are almost free they're so cheap will have a nasty habit of turning previous hardware into easily written software. The patent office/"industry" hasn't the slightest notion of whats about to hit them.

[corin_]

Is product X, that one person wants to own millions of, as popular as product Y, that one million people want to own one of?

And in terms of stock and availability, to which the above is irrelevant, as I previously mentioned it depends on their per-customer limits, which I'm pretty sure will be in place (at least initially).

[Ives]

Well, it's really not 35 dollars. Adding a 7 dollar power supply, a 5 dollar SD card and a molded case, it's more like 50 dollars. Plus shipping.