On Oct 28, 2011 7:37 AM, "Phil Endecott" <spam_from_debian_arm@chezphil.org> wrote:
>
> The i.MX LOCO board, the OMAP panda board, and some of the others cost about the
> same as your tablet.
>
> > Hardware that is not mass produced has some other issues,
> > namely availability and vendor lock-in
>
> You think that your tablet is going to have better availability and less lock-in
> than a board from Freescale or TI? That seems unlikely to me. Look at the
> BeagleBoard; it would be hard to find any smartphone or tablet device that has
> been available for as long as that has.
>
> > I think it must be possible to buy an android motherboard for just a
> > fraction of the price that i paid for my tablet.
>
> Why do you think that? I have personally never seen an "Android motherboard"
> offered for sale at all, let alone for a low price.
Yes, you have: LOCO, Panda, Beagleboard, etc.. The OP disagrees due to an unclear definition of "motherboard".
And the nice thing about the aforementioned boards is, they come with schematics. That erases the stability and availability problems by significantly lowering the barriers to producing the boards yourself if the need arises.
BeagleBoard is built by CircuitCo, and I'm sure they would be pleased to quote any similar board you like. Getting boards is NOT the problem, overcoming the psychology preventing one from asking for the boards is the problem.
b.g.