It shows another module, not a cheaper dev kit
@ VersaModule - yes you can use the TH board out of the box. This will be cleared once we have it out. The dev board is a really nice option but not required.
yes, after looking over again I guess I can consider it a mini dev kit, its just with the lack of USB or Ethernet it really kind of limits the out of box experience.
What would have really been killer is to have made the Octavo BBB like board, with the exception that in the middle of the board you placed your new module. Kinda like this. That way we could have used all the other BBB optional plugin boards out there on the net as well.
Just wishful thinking 
@ VersaModule -
Perhaps the target market audience is commercial not hobbyists. For a commercial product, a $300 evaluation board is not expensive, and might be less than most/many evaluation boards.
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Here’s what I think about the differences in a commercial customer and a home/semi professional hobbyist/maker/enthusiast is.
As a commercial customer, you want to minimise the effort required to produce your product. That means being able to prove a concept quickly, that means being able to move to production quickly, all with the effect of being able to monetise it quickly and keep your doors open. You do that by taking off-the-shelf components (lets call them dev boards, perhaps) that are as complete as you need, to get your POC going. You don’t want to have someone needing the hardware only to then have to go find all the other components - you want it as a whole.
As a semi professional, you want to do all the same, but you also have to be conscious of the capital costs you incur. That means you will consider the trade off of sharing a single display for example, across all your hardware. You’ll happily mix-and-match gear as you need, and steal off one project if needed to help another progress. You may still decide that the full-blown dev board is important enough to buy if you have an expectation that you will be needing that stand-alone device more than the current project/POC, but it’s then become more a permanent selection as your investment has gone up.
So the Dev Board here is certainly more appealing to the first customer than the second; sounds to me like @ Versa you’re in the second camp, clearly torn by the simplicity that it would give you in prototyping, but concerned by those costs.
The price is very much inline with what a G400 dev board costs. So, I’m not sure why anyone is surprised.
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@ mike-
[quote]Perhaps the target market audience is commercial not hobbyists. For a commercial product, a $300 evaluation board is not expensive, and might be less than most/many evaluation boards.
[/quote]
Perhaps it is, and if it is then why box yourself in a corner when you can make something that targets both markets at the same time. One could have simply made the dev board with an option to add the LCD at checkout to save costs since its the main driving factor. Not everyone is going to need an LCD.
@ Brett-
what you say is true, but the company I work for is not in the home/semi professional or hobbyist/maker/enthusiast camp.
@ ianlee74-
I think this is the second time I saw someone compare this kit to another GHI kit cost. I dont think that should be because this Linux platform is a whole other animal. In comparing one should compare to all the many, many other Linux dev kits out there which are much lower in cost.
For instance, I picked this up about 2 months ago for $77.
http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=86
along with the optional 7" lcd
http://www.friendlyarm.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=88
Now, I would warn anyone from getting this as it runs so hot that it will shutdown even with a heat sink on it.
Even my most recent purchase of this one:
http://ameridroid.com/products/lemaker-guitar-rev-b-1gb-package
I have bought over a dozen kits like this, we have spend over $1800 on kits thus far. The problem is that you buy the kit hoping to prove you concept. Many times you buy a kit and its sucks. The typical case where sales got ahead of engineering and sold the device before engineering had time to catch up on all the docs and software for it.
These linux kits are out there and very low cost, so there is no need to compare them to any other GHI kit, its a different animal all together.
Out of all these kits I got the only ones I likes and worked very well are the RPI, BBB & Odroid’s. Yet I cannot use any of them, they all come with the dam connectors on the boards. Which is why I liked the GHI module so much.
Now before anyone says Jeez Versa, you must not know what you doing to spend that kind of money on kits, and / or squeamish on spending $300 for a kit. I’ll answer that.
Currently we use another ARM product for all of our products, and I have no issues with it. However I am convinced that embedded Linux is the future of electronics. So even though right now I have no product in mind to put this in, I am on the hunt for something that works well, is the right fit for me (AKA no or limited connectors), a good price, and has good support. Once I find that nugget, I can start the learning process and get up to speed on it all. Then when a project comes up I am ready to go and plop it in, and run.
I seem to be viewed as not willing to spend the money, and for some reason everyone is missing my whole point in that when a engineer is going to start a new project that needs a Linux board and starts google searching for Linux dev kits they are going to see GHI’s kit cost and compare that to the many other Linux kits costs out there. They are then probably going to come to the conclusion that they can get more bang for the buck on a kit with from the others at a lower cost that with the GHI kit.
I started all this rambling about the cost because I truly had GHI at heart, and did not want them to scare off more than they would attract.
So again my whole point was to simple say, GHI have you really taken the time to price shop other like Linux kits out there before you settled on the cost for yours is all i was saying.
Just remember guys, before you assume you dont know the whole story on this end, lets just put this whole price thing to bed.
@ VersaModule - shame on you comparing our awesome boards to cheap Chinese boards 
By the way, our board comes with open source eagle files and GHI’s support. Octavo’s SiP is like nothing else on the market.
Plus Gary wants to buy a Ferrari 
just saying!
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What? Not a Maserati? You guys and your cars. Always compensating for something…
Lol…you know I only want an upgraded minivan!
Nobody likes you… :whistle:
ya my bad, sorry
You been talking to my wife again? If you keep that up you’re going to have to keep her. :naughty:
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@ Gary - Don’t buy a Ferrari, buy Lamborghini. You’ll get more respect.
I would get both, Ferrari and Lamborghini. 
Lamborghini = Audi
Ferrari = Fiat
Can’t decide whats worse.
With Audi at least the techical stuff should be more or less ok.
How did we switch the subject from 1 GHz processor to Fiat? :think:
Maybe some guys are smoking way too much weed …
Maybe, but it bothers me that they are not sharing
I guess there is something similar in the wild