Comment by jack12 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jack12 | Hacker News Reader

This article is very confusing in the way it refers to "early backers", I think it's leaving people with the wrong impression of what is shipping. They are shipping "alpha" CHIP computers only to the 150 people who backed at the "KERNEL HACKERS" tier for $150+S/H [1]. They've also announced that they'll be shipping an unexpected second alpha unit to each of those 150 backers again next month, partly because the first batch won't have any boot images programmed.

This initial shipment of 150 was scheduled for September from the beginning of the kickstarter, but it's not until December that the "$9" tiers begin to ship, and not until May 2016 that the majority of their rewards are due. It's nice to see them more or less on schedule with the roadmap in the original kickstarter, but this isn't anything unexpected.

There are people who say the $9 price point is unrealistic, and that the company will have to start taking additional "preorders" at higher prices just to afford to manufacture the preorders they already have, or that it's relying on corporate partnerships and funding to sell at a loss until enough interest is built up that they can increase the price. This is a fairly small shipment, which probably won't change any minds on that subject.

[1] https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598272670/chip-the-wor...

There are people who say the $9 price point is unrealistic, and that the company will have to start taking additional "preorders" at higher prices just to afford to manufacture the preorders they already have, or that it's relying on corporate partnerships and funding to sell at a loss until enough interest is built up that they can increase the price. This is a fairly small shipment, which probably won't change any minds on that subject.

$9 is substantially less than the BOM cost, even assuming huge quantity discounts. A small American startup does not have access to some secret source of ultra-cheap components. The price is marketing spin, nothing more.

I don't buy that.

The OrangePi is crazy for what you get. And it's $15 with $3 shipping.

I don't see a reason to buy the CHiP, given I can get a OrangePi ordered right now and have them in 3 weeks.

I went to orangepi.org, clicked the "point me to buy the boards" link, and landed at a link[1] offering a price of $39. Where did you find it for $15?

[1] http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/NEW-orange-pi-plus-A...

Apparently that's an Orange Pi Plus. The 'normal' one [1] lacks the SATA interface and has one fewer USB 2.0 Port, but otherwise seems pretty much the same.

[1] http://www.aliexpress.com/store/product/Orange-Pi-PC-set-1-O...

Is there somewhere that lists the differences between the various models? They seem to have 6 models but it's not clear what the differences are.

Thanks!

The OrangePi omits the on-board flash and the wireless chipset, which represent a substantial proportion of the CHIP's BOM cost. The HDMI and Ethernet jacks add less than $1 to the OrangePi's BOM cost. The OrangePi team are based in Shenzhen, which is a big deal when you're trying to squeeze your suppliers.

The $6 difference in price is highly significant - a 66% increase is far from trivial. I can see how the OrangePi can be made at a small profit, assuming they're getting a decent price on the Allwinner H3 SoC. The CHIP simply doesn't add up at $9, even as a breakeven proposition.

Ethernet jacks are actually surprisingly expensive - I'm guessing due to some combination of the integrated transformer and the difficulty of manufacturing the connector - so the BOM cost could well be more than adding a wireless chip these days.

I remember when I tried to order it, the shipping itself was 20$, and there was no way to order more than one. I often order stuff way larger than that, that come to way less than 20$, all in, from China. I'm pretty sure that's part of their margin.

The price the manufacturer is looking to sell, this doesn't make sense. Sure it offers more hardware flexibility than a PI, but its ultimate form factor makes it at best a pi type substitute rather than opening up new possibilities like what the Arduino Nano does.

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