The ESP8266 is making waves because a) it&#x27;s substantially cheaper than anything else on the market, b) it integrates the WiFi MAC, the entire RF system from balun to baseband and a useful microcontroller and c) it is fantastically easy to use.<p>Espressif will sell you a single ESP8266 for less than $2; the ESP8089 is less than a buck, again in single quantities. TI&#x27;s 1ku pricing for a CC3100 SoC is $6.70. Nordic&#x27;s cheapest 2.4GHz SoC is about $3.50&#x2F;1ku, and that doesn&#x27;t do WiFi. The cheap Espressif chips really are a big deal IMO, in the same way that cheap ARM A-series processors from Rockchip and Allwinner have radically changed many consumer markets. You can run an HTTP server on a chip that is price-competitive with an ATTINY88.