It was the price that made it special. There were (and still are) dozens of boards just like Pi's with better specs but they all cost around $100. There's a ce

It was the price that made it special. There were (and still are) dozens of boards just like Pi's with better specs but they all cost around $100. There's a certain price at which something becomes "consumable" and you can buy one for each project instead of buying "the one" that gets moved from project to project. That bright line makes all the difference. They are damn lucky they started with the $35 one and not the $25 one like they planned. It would have been (will be) much harder to keep up with demand when they become the same price as Arduino.