[klelatti]

This makes it sound as though

1. Arm can increase royalty rates on existing already shipping designs.

2. That increases in royalty rates would be material to the price paid by the end user - making the device ‘expensive’ for the end user.

Neither of these reflect the actual nature of licenses in practice.

[rcxdude]

If you're buying a large quantity of them for a product the license fees can certainly be relevant (As can, e.g. the number of pins on the package). I suspect it's there for that kind of customer.

[klelatti]

Sure and what is possible is that some users develop RISC-V based applications and RPi can offer a slightly cheaper version for those really price sensitive customers.

The comment I replied to was unduly alarmist though in suggesting Arm could make the Pico ‘expensive’ vs ‘cheap’ now with a royalty increase on an existing license.