There is something quietly amazing about being able to hold a fully functional computer in your hand. It’s not a phone. Not a tablet. A computer. SolidRun, an Israeli tech company that has been making small machines since 2011, recently took that idea even further than most people thought it could go, and they did it at a price that is hard to argue with.
The CuBox-i range costs at least $45. People often stop and think about that number for a moment. It worked for me.
That price gets you the CuBox-i1, a machine with one core, 512 MB of RAM, and a wired Ethernet port. A Freescale iMX6 processor powers it. This is the kind of system-on-chip that uses little power while still doing good work for everyday tasks. A video editing suite won’t work on it. But it wasn’t supposed to. At the top of the line is the $120 CuBox-i4, which has a quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. The range makes sense between those two price points.
The conversation about the CuBox price isn’t just about the numbers; it’s also about the bigger picture. When SolidRun first released the CuBox Mini-PC in 2011, it cost more than $120. The Israeli company and its ideas about small computers are the same, but the market is very different. In the years that followed, the prices of parts went down, the iMX6 chip came out with better scalability, and SolidRun decided it was time to stop ignoring buyers on a budget.
The CEO of the company, Kossay Omary, was pretty clear about what he thought. He talked about wanting these machines to let people use their imaginations. He also said that the engineering team worked hard to keep costs low so that the product seemed like a “no brainer.” In tech, that phrase is used a lot. At least in this case, it’s earned. For $45 it’s not cynical to sell a 2-inch cube computer that runs Linux, XBMC Media Center software, or Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean.
It’s important to remember what this range is meant for. These aren’t replacements for desktops. These computers are used for projects like media centers, home automation setups, light servers, and tinkering. Hobbyists, developers, teachers, and anyone else who wants a useful little machine without spending a lot of money will be interested. When priced this low, the CuBox-i is more in line with devices like the Raspberry Pi than with traditional laptops. This is because the Raspberry Pi is easy to get into, making it a good place to try new things.
As I watch this market change, I get the feeling that affordability is becoming the real innovation. It’s an engineering problem to make a computer smaller. It’s both a business and design problem to make it less expensive while still being useful. It turns out that one is harder. At least, SolidRun seems to have fixed both of them pretty well.
A lot of people might buy the CuBox-i range, but that will depend on how well known it is and how the software ecosystem grows. Support for Linux looks good. Being able to use Android makes things even more flexible. Still, it’s not clear how quickly SolidRun will add more support or if the “limited number” of pre-order units will really build momentum or just give early adopters a short-lived rush of interest.
It’s clear that the CuBox price is kept low on purpose. Not too high, so the question is easy. The answer is probably “yes,” but it depends on what you were going to build anyway.
