I had thought about this same problem as well. Here are my suggestions to GHI
- The modules cost to much OUTside of the us esp in Europe where Arduino is from.
Solution - GHI it’s time to become a multinational. Setup a small manufacturing shop somewhere in Europe and start selling the main boards and modules with parts derived from with the EU. The STM32F chips are from over there anyways.
- GHI = Mercedes. The components are good quality, well tested and durable. My Fez Domino from 2 years ago still works.
Solution - GHI it’s time to create your competitors. Find a way to make them cheaper especially if it means sacrificing quality. Then take that product, start a company and sell em on ebay, amazon, the corner store etc. Us perfectionists won’t like that but hey it’s an empire you’re trying to build here.
- C# and Visual Studio aren’t well adopted, even though the tooling is free as AIR.
Solution - (hehe) Since it supports C# and VB.NET, make the .netmf support Managed C++ and JavaScript!. Here is my story on this one: The universities locally teach their students Java and have been doing so for a number of years. So when they come to the interview and you ask the candidate “So have you had any experience with C#”, they try and sell you on the merits of Java and the Eclipse IDE! When I once had a talk with a guy in a formal setting, regarding writing some code for a project. When I said that “We’re developing this with C#, in Visual Studio”, he became apprehensive; and started selling me on the merits of Java and the Eclipse IDE. The first thing they always mention is “Open Source”, then “It runs on Linux!”. So if you tell them: Hey, you can “program” this uC with javascript using the Eclipse IDE on your Mac; all of a sudden they will pay attention.
From a techincal standpoint there is no reason why Gadgeteer can’t be developed on the Eclipse IDE. If GHI was to break away and start supporting Eclipse, C++ and JavaScript, you’ll win more hearts and minds and you’re piss off Microsoft.
So to ensure that people still want to use Visual Studio and C# to write their programs, just make sure that the C++ and JavaScript programs run 1/2 as fast as “native” C#.
- Arduino has a lot of ground with cool applications. NETMF has few (if any).
Solution: Build a Drone something, that uses the power of the NETMF devices that Arduino cannot do, even if you have to to it in RLP. One such idea is a Game Controller for Android, IOS and Phone8 devices (you’ll have to beg Microsoft to release the USB protocol spec for Phone7 & 8 btw). The concept is this: Take a phone device, and model a cradle for it. The cradle will have a connection to the NETMF device via usb (or something else). The cradle will have 2 things: A battery to charge the device, and game controller like buttons. The concept is to use the phone’s processor and screen along side the hardware controller buttons to play games that require fast user input that Serious gamers are accustomed to. You’ll effectively create a competitor to the PSP and DSLite, that costs ALOT less. Use 3D printing to prototype the cradle.
Or this advice could be worthless in which case ignore.