Cost and power efficiency. If you want cheap portable electronics that have batteries that last forever, then you need to build SoCs that have exact features needed for a specific application and no more.
Maintaining software compatibility would mean sacrificing either price or power consumption. So a manufacturer can choose between spending money rewriting the software, or having to pay anywhere between 15¢ to $100 more per unit. If you’re making millions of units, then savings from using more limited SoCs will quickly pay for an army of software engineers.
Maintaining software compatibility would mean sacrificing either price or power consumption. So a manufacturer can choose between spending money rewriting the software, or having to pay anywhere between 15¢ to $100 more per unit. If you’re making millions of units, then savings from using more limited SoCs will quickly pay for an army of software engineers.