this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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While there are now X86 SBC / Mini Computers that aren't far off the Pi in price, the real benefits of the Pi aren't just the fact that it offers a certain amount of compute for a certain price.
It's still lower power than most x86 SBCs overall, which matters with portable/remote applications
Its schematics are usually available
They're easy to get and have a usually guaranteed availability, so when one dies you should be able to get another
its got a decent ecosystem around it of hardware and software, which basically nobody else can claim
it's a fairly standard form factor, so fits into existing stuff well.
It's likely we will see a compute module for the Pi 5 as well at a guess, which means you can treat the vanilla Pi 5 as a dev board for whatever product you're developing, and then use a potential CM5 as the core of your product once it's ready to go!
If all you need is a home server or a Linux box, then sure get an X86 SBC, but the Pi isn't irrelevant, not by a long shot! Congratulations on releasing yet another sweet spot product, I'll be picking one up as soon as I think of a use for one!
Easy to get?
When I say easy to get, I don't necessarily mean "in stock" - and that is obviously a huge consideration. What I do mean that as far as I know the Pi foundation plans to keep manufacturing older boards for a long time since some customers can't just easily upgrade to the latest Pi, let alone move to a whole new platform. Is the Beelink x86 PC you got last week going to still be for sale without any significant revisions in 6 months?