> In the professional realm, Arduinos are not that popular. They're just too expensive. It seemed to me the comparison in the article was more toward something

> In the professional realm, Arduinos are not that popular. They're just too expensive. It seemed to me the comparison in the article was more toward something like an ARM-based platform. In my opinion a large part of the success is the combination of price (compared to $100+ microcontroller development boards) and accessiblity (a mostly out-of-box tool chain and set of libraries). > The microcontroller that the Arduino uses costs a few dollars, which is a tiny fraction of $30 for the whole board. Keep in mind that part of the cost of the board is "sustainable development" due to it being produced in Italy with apparently known labour practices.