Taking an Open-Source Approach to Hardware @ WSJ.com…
The main producer of the Arduino is Smart Projects Snc, based in the tiny town of Scarmagno, Italy. This year, the two-person firm is on track to sell at least 60,000 of the microcontrollers, which retail for at least $30 a piece, up from 34,000 last year. Owner Gianluca Martino, an electrical engineer, has had to contract out much of the production to keep up with growth. It’s a peculiar predicament, since the Arduino’s designs are on the Internet for anyone to download and use.While there are clones on the market, the microcontrollers that Mr. Martino produces, with the map of Italy printed on the back of it, are by far the most popular.
This is huge! Open source hardware in the WSJ!
2 thoughts on “Taking an open source approach to hardware…”
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They also mentioned the Chumby about half-way in. Some guy made a comment “The term ‘Open Source Hardware’ is misleading. …”
He seems to think it should be called “Public Domain hardware”. Of course (as Phillip knows) i prefer “Open Design hardware”.
I love the quote from Leah Buechley, almost daring someone to try copying the Lilypad. She’s right though, the accessories are what makes the lilypad so cool, not just the arduino-clone-lilypad.
It’s amazing how few arduino’s are actually out there, based on the WSJ’s numbers. Besides that, i own six.. i’m sure there are many people who fit in that group. Considering how multi-national the arduino is, i expected a lot more. To be honest, i prefer a smaller club anyways : )