[joezydeco]

Broadcom doesn't put chips "in the wild", which leads you to the paradox that is RPI. It was a scrap chip that Upton made into a cheap educational computer, the rest of you ran off with it as a supercheap COTS computing module and now nobody can figure out how to ship their products without it. Or, most distinctly, nobody wants to believe that the RPI isn't subsidized and all SoCs are this cheap.

Broadcom doesn't deal with small fish, much less hobbyists. I've dealt with their products working for a large product maker and it wasn't any better on that side of the fence.

[bemusedthrow75]

Are you saying that you think Broadcom are still subsidising the Pi? Even the Zero 2W, which has a custom chip designed by Raspberry Pi?

I mean, as I understand it, they ship about half a million CM4 units alone every four to six weeks, and they sell Pi hardware to businesses like Citrix: why would Broadcom need to/be willing to subsidise chips at that scale?