If you start from the point of view of realizing the function alone, actually the Raspberry Pi is capable of doing some work. But from a practical point of view, the biggest value of the existence of the Raspberry Pi, mainly used to learn the basic principles of the server, as well as to learn some general knowledge of the circuit. A lot of innate factors that determine it is difficult to become the mainstream of smart device development.

First, cost.

Let's do some math first, a 3-generation + Raspberry Pi, to 200 + dollars. If you want to make a product, with two other modules, according to the price estimate of a module of about 100 yuan, the material cost is at least 400 + yuan. Add some basic components, power supply, and case, and it's on the order of $500.

And with two modules of the Raspberry Pi, what level of products might be made? Hygrometer, pumpkin lamp, doorbell ....... Probably this level, right?500 yuan material costs, plus promotion costs, transportation costs, labor costs, time costs, taxes, sold to seven or eight hundred dollars, I am afraid to lose money.

Second, the range problem.

The power consumption of the Raspberry Pi determines that it can only be used on large devices. Although many people on the Internet, using it to create a smart waterer, toy drones and other small creative products. But how many people have carefully considered these creative products, in the use of batteries as a power source, how long the endurance? Let's take a look at what that doorbell looks like:

A dangling high-end luxury doorbell, priced at nearly $1,000, occasionally emits a buzzing fan sound. When you turn on the power button, you have to wait a while for the doorbell to turn on before you can use it. A dedicated power supply is required, and if you use a regular lithium battery, it will only last a few hours.

In summary, since it can only be used for large devices, the Raspberry Pi's own small size loses its practical significance.

Thirdly, there is no advantage over a microcontroller development board.

With the Raspberry Pi similar to the most common ARM microcontroller development boards, for example, ARDUINO, which is considered more conducive to the entry of newcomers than the 51 series of microcontrollers microcontroller development boards, it is the only difference between the application of Raspberry Pi, is that it is a single chip, there is no operating system, so it can not be used as a computer. An ARDUINO according to the version configuration, the price is about 25-80 yuan, in addition to not being able to use as a computer, it can achieve the function but with the Raspberry Pi is not the same as the development of a lot of difficulty, power consumption is much lower than the Raspberry Pi, basically to meet the needs of the handheld device battery life, plus a human infrared sensors, a WIFI module, a buzzer, a transistor A few batteries, 100 yuan is absolutely more than enough, and then with some basic components, plus a shell, if the cost is properly controlled, 150 yuan or less, a smart doorbell made, but also far less than the price of a Raspberry Pi bare metal. As long as the publicity is right, selling to the price of 200 yuan out of the price, it seems to be successful profit. No fan, no buzzing, turns on in seconds, no waiting, and with a couple of batteries, stands by for a week or so - that's slightly more like what a product should be, isn't it?

Raspberry Pi derived civilian smart devices, market share is basically close to zero. In addition to the price, power consumption, are exponentially higher than the ARDUINO outside, the only can be counted as an advantage, is that there is an operating system only. But if there is a real need to install a small operating system on ARDUINO, it is not difficult, such as ProtoThreads and other operating systems designed for microcontrollers, only need to burn 120 lines of code can be done. It's not as powerful as Raspbian, but it's compact and naturally consumes much less energy, making it easy to solve the problem of poor battery life on handheld devices.

From a production point of view, ARDUINO can almost be regarded as a complete victory over the Raspberry Pi, but for this reason, ARDUINO in the microcontroller development boards, is still considered to belong to the category of "toys" (the cost is still too high to be suitable for mass production)

And the actual commonly used in the industrial production of development boards, what is the price of the board? What is the price of a development board that is actually used in industrial production?

ESP8266 series, the Internet of Things industry's most popular MCU development board. Alibaba above wholesale, the unit price of about 4 yuan.

Other companies with $4 cost to get things done, you need to use $200 +, boot slower than others, shorter battery life than others, heat than others, you want to go to which company to work?