We really want to work with Nordic, but they makes it hard.

[Bndit]

It seems like a really great company, but after exploring and asking , and searching for a good BLE solution, I just can't find a good fit.

So you want a GOOD processor, and BLE . If you go with the nrf8001 and external MCU you get a pretty old BLE solution, nobody knows if its going to be here next year, AND it requires so many components around it including 2 crystals, which summed up to a price of a BLE module ( around 6$)

If you go with the more advanced solutions such as nrf51 series, you find out that the processors are just there to say : hey we have an ARM inside.

1. No DAC option ( any new ARM has it)
2. No RTC
3. No flash emulator to save stuff between resets / eeprom.

and the list is pretty long, and thats not including long development time.

This is not a rant, quite the opposite, it seems like a great company (and its not from China/ Thailand or whatever) , but every solution you check has at least 1 huge drawback .

Am I completely wrong here ?

[endnode]

Your summary for nRF51 seems to be inaccurate, can you elaborate with some examples what you lack in points 1/2/3 and which competition can offer it? Chip has many HW peripherals, has RTC and TIMER (several of them) and has 256kB of flash. Also why you don't consider nRF52 which is more power effective, has more flash/RAM/peripherals and cost difference is small? To be honest I haven't met better low-power Bluetooth processor on the market, can you hint what can give you more then nRF52?

[Bndit]

Don't agree at all. I want to build products, not to "understand how a chip works" and I think you too. 99% of applications will never ever need more then "simple coding" as you say. I think you still do not get why Apple is Apple. Its exactly the opposite from your approach. We use chips to build products, not to understand them. If somebody build a product( a chip) and I have to go through hell to use it, then he failed. This is why Arduino is using dumb AVR chips that looks stupid compared to Nordic, but yet Arduino took the market big time. Its all about user experience and I do not care about dead ends, loops, and other stuff. I need and API to set characteristics, send and receive data, and write some algorithms. If I have to understand threads - you failed. Can't use the Pi, need a solution to mass production, we are not playing around with toys..