Computer manufacturing companies such as Hewlett Packard, Toshiba, Acer and many others have made desktop and laptop computers for years now. Each brand usually releases new models several times per year, trying to keep up with the rapidly advancing technology.
Most everyone focuses on more power and more capabilities while the most basic compute available is usually more than enough for most users. I believe that there are many people who really do need as much power as they can get.
Graphics artists, musicians and gamers often max out the capabilities of their computer systems and could actually do more (or do it better) if they had a more powerful computer.
But what about the average user who only uses their computer to read and write emails, watch YouTube videos and browse the internet for news stories and funny pictures? Those users really don’t need very much computing power at all, however the computer manufacturing industry doesn’t focus on that market. They instead just keep selling more and more powerful computers that most people don’t need.
Raspberry Pi is a tiny computer that has enough processing power to play a high-definition video. You can also do all of the other basic functions like surf the web, answer emails etc.
It is a great computer for most basic computer users. I believe that once Raspberry Pi computers are available in sufficient quantities, many people will begin to distribute them as little utility computers for basic functions. Since they will be so inexpensive and will probably cost about 1/10 as much as a full desktop computer, people will lean towards buying them instead of the larger, more powerful computers.
When that happens, the major computer manufacturers will need to reevaluate their direction in the computer market.
People will still need super fast computers, but they will likely increase in cost since the average computer user will no longer be supporting the research and development of the bigger, faster machines.
Instead, they will be looking for where to order Raspberry Pi computers so they only have to pay for what they actually need.