Qualcomm to acquire Arduino

The acquisition of Arduino certainly caught me by surprise. But now I'm beginning to see why.

The MCU market has changed significantly since the early years of Arduino. It's really competitive out there and price sensitive.

Then when taking a broader look at what's changed, I've noticed that MicroPython is probably the go-to for educators rather than C/C++ and you don't need Arduino for that. In fact, Arduino only recently adopted MicroPython. Makers, in my opinion, are spoilt for choice these days in terms of the number of boards out there and I suspect the Arduino R3 form factor is no longer a prototyper's first choice. I'm guessing here, but I also suspect VS Code is probably now the go-to IDE for makers rather than Arduino IDE. So a lot has changed.

This leaves Arduino with their cloud based system, which is pretty good, and their industrial products, some of which are really good (like OPTA). Certainly, the latter demonstrates that Arduino know how set up developer-led application platforms, even in industrial markets. They're proving that they know how to adapt to market changes, and they have built a great reputation for simplifying the development process (even the toolchains have improved, IMHO, as a result of this competition) combined with some good products, which often suffer because of stiff price competition. 

Qualcomm on the other hand, are in the PC/Industrial Processor market, and automotive (EV), with their products. According to their website, they want to be an IoT player but IMO they haven't quite got there. I suppose Arduino is their magic ticket. As to whether this pleases the Arduino-led prototype developer community and attracts new customers, we'll have to see. On the negative side, I just hope this doesn't become another Intel type endeavour when they created their Galileo and Edison products for makers etc.

Interesting insight. I enjoy using Micropython for Raspberry Pi Picos and Rpi. The RPi pico form factor was similar to Arduino Nano, which is my preferred go to. I prefer the Arduino IDE for doing logicals , sequencing, and SSD1306s. Micropython is better for numbers and character manipulation, but I also bang into library incompatibilities. .I fall short in IOT, AI, and hope the new platform makes it alot easier for goofs like me to use object detection and recognition. I'd for sure would like to understand signal processing alot better too.         

Interesting insight. I enjoy using Micropython for Raspberry Pi Picos and Rpi. The RPi pico form factor was similar to Arduino Nano, which is my preferred go to. I prefer the Arduino IDE for doing logicals , sequencing, and SSD1306s. Micropython is better for numbers and character manipulation, but I also bang into library incompatibilities. .I fall short in IOT, AI, and hope the new platform makes it alot easier for goofs like me to use object detection and recognition. I'd for sure would like to understand signal processing alot better too.