The Death of Arduino?

You have likely already heard that Qualcomm acquired Arduino a few weeks ago. Since then, the community has been questioning Arduino’s business model and, more importantly, the community-driven, DIY, and open-source nature of the ecosystem—and rightfully so.

Via the link below, you’ll find an interesting comment from Adafruit Industries, another key player in this ecosystem, which truly respects the "open-source" spirit of the community, regarding this acquisition of Arduino by Qualcomm.

https://www.linkedin.com/company/adafruit/posts/

 

 

In my opinion, Adafruit's remarks are entirely relevant and, I believe, irreversibly highlight the path that Arduino is now set to follow—leading to what we can easily 'predict' will be the more or less swift abandonment of Arduino by the community. Ultimately... to the pure and simple end of the Arduino adventure.

Open question: What comes next? For my part, I've been noting several independent companies operating in the realm of 'open-source' electronics. In reference to this post: Adafruit, obviously, but also SparkFun, DFRobot, Seeed Studio, Keyestudio, and many others.

The common characteristic of these companies is that they rely on existing ecosystems like Arduino itself. Although these companies also often develop their own "personal" ecosystems, the disappearance of Arduino could still lead to a brief period of uncertainty in the DIY world.

My conclusion: The torch will certainly be picked up. By a third party or by the community itself. Alternatively, the moment may be ripe for the emergence of another platform in the same spirit. Potentially both possibilities.

In any case, I feel this moment is more one of renewal rather than an ending. A heads-up to creators of all kinds...