[mschuster91]

It has WiFi, which requires FCC testing for the US market as well as compliance certificates for the European area. These certifications and checks are f...ing costly.

RPi/Arduino in contrast only have wired or no networking, thus eliminating a huge part of the upfront costs (e.g. in Europe you then only need a CE certificate, which you can either issue without testing and be liable if your module doesn't meet the standards, or you get an ESD/EMR test for a couple thousand bucks).

[SpikedCola]

You only need to undergo FCC testing if the module you use is not already certified. You can buy "FCC-approved" modules that are "ready to sell".

I ran into something similar with BT4.0 modules - had to convince the client that a $3 module, while cheap up front, couldn't be sold without spending $$$ on certification. Eventually they went with a $7 one.

[dguaraglia]

Good point on the Wi-Fi. I guess that explains the cost, but it doesn't explain why you'd choose it over a Raspberry Pi. You can buy a Wi-Fi USB dongle for like 5 bucks on Amazon.

[foxylad]

Yes, but the Electric Imp has wifi built in for $30.

Ironically it uses the Squirrel language to program it, which I think was a mistake - I found it very unproductive.

[Zuph]

They were using Lua, but found some of the features of the language to be non-condusive to microcontroller use.

If you want something similar that can be programmed bare-metal, check out the spark core: https://www.spark.io/

[Sanddancer]

The base Arduino doesn't have networking. However, there are models, like the Yun, that do have wifi and/or ethernet and are less than the cost of the Tessel.