ARM-based EMB-2500: Like Raspberry Pi, but much better

"expect to be able to buy one for between $140.00 to $180.00"

Given that the $35 price is part of what makes the RaspberryPi what it is, I'm not seeing how all these expensive substitutes are "like Raspberry Pi" at all, rather than merely being similarly small.

There are a few ways to be competitive in business.

1. Be the best 2. Have something unique 3. Be the first to market 4. Be the cheapest 5. Be exclusive

First to market only works for a limited time.

Sigh. When will people understand that the RPi's #1 design impetus is to be replaced easily and cheaply? It isn't to be hack-able (and the closed-source GPU firmware blocks those attempts). It isn't to be fast.

There's a glut of programmers out there. There is a dearth of hardware designers. We need tomorrow's peripheral designers to start learning their craft today, and that means taking chances on iffy designs that might fry a computer. Better to fry a $35 computer than a $140 computer.

If you aren't challenging the price point of the Raspberry Pi, don't bother bringing up the name. You're only doing yourself a disservice. DrDubious is right.

Don't forget market to the wealthy.

Like IBM? Like Apple did (and still does) with the Macintosh?

Profit margins, or volume. There aren't many products that have lots of each.

It isn't to be hack-able (and the closed-source GPU firmware blocks those attempts).

Every one of the GPUs used in ARM SOCs that I am aware of are proprietary with two companies dominating, PowerVR and ARM. I believe the GPU in the RPi is a Broadcom (maker of the SOC) design so theoretically they could release it but then again it might use IP from another source or they just might not want to. And I would like to remind that in the PC world the nVidia GPUs are still very much proprietary designs.

I believe the media engine on the RPi is also proprietary. Again, this is "normal" in most cases that I am aware of.

There is information available that allows writing drivers for I2C, SPI, GPIO, async serial, DMA, timers, using interrupts and more so it is hackable.

Exactly, how to connect home-brew devices and what to expect signal-wise to/from those devices. The last I knew, there weren't any home-brew video flatscreens.

Quoting:The last I knew, there weren't any home-brew video flatscreens.

These aren't really homebrew in the manufactured hardware sense, more like the interfacing sense:

Video player built from Stellaris Launchpad

Connect a Retina display to a regular computer

GUI window manager on an AVR chip

There are many more here.