[georgemcbay]

The original "reason" for the Raspberry Pi was just to be a super cheap computer that kids could pick up and learn to code for like they did with the old BBC (or VIC20/Commodore 64/Apple II/TRS-80/Atari 8bits/etc). At least, that's what the Raspberry Pi foundation was pushing as the reason.

The GPIO pins and the fairly fast gpu for video rendering were secondary things.

The Raspberry Pi somehow or other really caught the zeitgeist at the right time. It isn't the only kid on the block doing what it is doing, even when you consider price, but it is by far the most widely known and thus there are huge network effects that make it a good device to be tinkering with.

This situation is quite similar to smaller microcontrollers where in the minds of many people that whole segment has become nearly synonymous with the Arduino despite the fact that there are many other options, some of them just as capable but far cheaper (eg. TI's MSP430 which you can buy for less than 5 bucks) and some about the same price but far more powerful.

Of course, once all the software, tutorials and/or hardware "shields" crop up for the mind-share winner, that platform certainly becomes the most convenient to hack on and then that popularity feeds on itself. In both cases hopefully the entry device serves as a gateway for the interested hacker, but not their final destination.

[beagle3]

> It isn't the only kid on the block doing what it is doing, even when you consider price,

Can you point to others in the price range ($35) that come close? And from your intro above, I would guess "what it is doing" includes GPIO?