The Propeller was a commercial failure because it was a one-off part, from a small company, with very little software ecosystem surrounding it, a poor performance to price ratio, and no migration path if you needed more capabilities than it could provide.

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lysace 5 days ago | parent [-]

Meh. Similar pricing and availability compared to its primary competitor at the time: Arduino.

It was just too unusual in too many ways.

In one way it’s a bit like the Amiga vs the 8088/8086 PC.

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duskwuff 5 days ago | parent [-]

"Arduino" is a brand of development boards. The direct equivalent would be the Atmel* ATmega168, and that was widely available through distributors, less expensive, had extensive manufacturer and community support, and was part of a broad product line.

What makes microcontrollers commercially successful is... commercial use. Hobbyist applications are fun, but they don't pay the bills.

*: Microchip hadn't bought them yet

	▲	lysace 5 days ago \| parent [-]
		The context here is decidedly hobbyist/educational.