Perhaps you've got a point, the Genesi machine may be aimed at the third world. If so, its not aimed well. A laptop with an integrated display makes more sense. I can buy an Intel Atom based laptop for about what the Genesi system would cost when a basic monitor, keyboard, and mouse are incorporated. And, instead of running Linux, I can run Windows.
And, for us in the hobbyist market, leave it to Genesi to move from the A8 to the A9 as the market prepares to move from the A9 to the A15.
Genesi also sells the board inside a laptop. They charge $199 for the laptop, though I am sure they sell it in quantity to gov't's for cheaper. I highly doubt they sell more than a hundred units (if that) off their website every year.
As far as I know the i.MX 5 series boards are already in production and after a bit will be for sale on their site for retail customers to buy. Though perhaps not as I believe they only sell leftovers from production runs online. I may be wrong though.
I think they are more going for fair performance with low power consumption as there are many places on earth without a reliable power grid.
As for selling the units without a monitor vs with a monitor. What exactly do you think happened to all those CRT monitor's that North America threw away? The tubes are re-manufactured into new monitor's and TV's. Somewhere in a developing nation they are playing an All-In-One Nintendo 1001-in-one SuperJoy III on a 1084 monitor tube. Anyways there is likely not a large shortage of cheap CRT monitors for these cheap computers to be plugged into.
I am fascinated by low end electronics, which is why I must budget not to spend more than a couple of hundred dollars on dealextreme each month. Though sometimes I cannot resist the lure... and consequently my home looks like a Chinese swap meet at times. Luckily my children break the stuff pretty quickly so I can new and improved cheap junk to play with....
I'm just ranting now... and I have to work in the morning.
doh.
