> There is no real demand for alternatives to the RPi.
Only if you quality that with "among consumers." There is tons of demand for ARM-based modules that are designed to be embedded in a commercial product. Comparing this product to any SBC such as RPi3 or Orange Pi completely misses the point. Just look at the headers on pretty much every SBC. If you see 0.1" pitch headers, it's meant for hobbyists, not commercial application.
As mentioned elsewhere, you can compare this to CM3, but there are tons of other players in this space (and there have been for longer than the CM has been around.) To name a few: Anything from Variscite, Myir, Toradex: note many of these cost well north of $50 because they're meant for commercial/ industrial. Samsung Artik 053, Chip Pro, Olimex SOMs and SOPINE are some newer players that have been pushing the price down a bit in this space. So this product is price competitive, esp since there aren't many aarch64 modules out there.
Specifically: if you were designing a product that needs Ethernet (esp GbE) you almost certainly would not choose the RPi CM because it's not on the BCM chip. i.MX and AM335x support 10/100 MAC/Phy, H5 supports GbE. If you were doing an automotive product, RPi and H5 do not have CAN, so you might choose an AM335x SOM. There is definitely a real demand for alternatives to the RPi in the space that this product is targeting.
Only if you quality that with "among consumers." There is tons of demand for ARM-based modules that are designed to be embedded in a commercial product. Comparing this product to any SBC such as RPi3 or Orange Pi completely misses the point. Just look at the headers on pretty much every SBC. If you see 0.1" pitch headers, it's meant for hobbyists, not commercial application.
As mentioned elsewhere, you can compare this to CM3, but there are tons of other players in this space (and there have been for longer than the CM has been around.) To name a few: Anything from Variscite, Myir, Toradex: note many of these cost well north of $50 because they're meant for commercial/ industrial. Samsung Artik 053, Chip Pro, Olimex SOMs and SOPINE are some newer players that have been pushing the price down a bit in this space. So this product is price competitive, esp since there aren't many aarch64 modules out there.
Specifically: if you were designing a product that needs Ethernet (esp GbE) you almost certainly would not choose the RPi CM because it's not on the BCM chip. i.MX and AM335x support 10/100 MAC/Phy, H5 supports GbE. If you were doing an automotive product, RPi and H5 do not have CAN, so you might choose an AM335x SOM. There is definitely a real demand for alternatives to the RPi in the space that this product is targeting.