Raspberry Pi production remains hamstrung by supply chain issues

Shawn Knight

Posts: 15,253   +192
Staff member
In brief: Availability of in-demand consumer electronics including game consoles and graphics cards is much healthier today compared to the beginning of the year but it is not ubiquitous. As those in the market for a Raspberry Pi can attest to, finding one is just as much of a chore now as it was nine months ago unless you want to grossly overpay for one from a third-party marketplace. Worse yet, the situation likely will not improve anytime soon.

Back in April, Raspberry Pi chief Ebon Upton said they have been able to consistently build around half a million single-board computer and Compute Module products each month and anticipated building at this rate over the coming months.

Upton at the time also said they were prioritizing shipments to commercial and industrial customers that need Raspberry Pis to run their businesses, acknowledging that some people's livelihoods are at stake. This meant that individual customers considering a Pi for a home project or prototyping could be facing some delays.

It has been about five months, so where does the situation stand currently? During a recent YouTube livestream, Jeff Geerling said he spoke to Upton and asked about the matter. Upton told him everything from the April post still stands, meaning they are still supply constrained and are still prioritizing OEM customers that need them for business. That said, Upton noted they are ring-fencing some supply for retail customers.

If for some reason you absolutely need a Raspberry Pi ASAP, Geerling recommends emailing Raspberry Pi directly and explaining your situation to see if they can make an exception. There is no guarantee you will be able to skip the line but if you have a genuine need, they might be able to work with you.

Raspberry Pi earlier this year celebrated its 10th anniversary. At the time, the company said it had sold more than 45 million units to date – a figure that is no doubt higher some seven months later.

Image credit: Harrison Broadbent

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Let me quote something, straight out of the Raspberry Pi foundation website as of right now:

The Raspberry Pi Foundation is a UK-based charity with the mission to enable young people to realise their full potential through the power of computing and digital technologies.


[HEADING=2]Our vision[/HEADING]

Our vision is that every young person develops:


  • The knowledge, skills, and confidence to use computers and digital technologies effectively in their work, community, and personal life; to solve problems and to express themselves creatively
  • Sufficient understanding of societal and ethical issues to be able to critically evaluate digital technologies and their application, and to design and use technology for good
  • The mindsets that enable them to confidently engage with technological change and to continue learning about new and emerging technologies

[HEADING=2]Our long-term goals[/HEADING]

  1. Education: To enable any school to teach students about computing and how to create with digital technologies, through providing the best possible curriculum, resources, and training for teachers.
  2. Non-formal learning: To engage millions of young people in learning about computing and how to create with digital technologies outside of school, through online resources and apps, clubs, competitions, and partnerships with youth organisations.
  3. Research: To deepen our understanding of how young people learn about computing and how to create with digital technologies, and to use that knowledge to increase the impact of our work and advance the field of computing education.

Now does any part of a charity based foundation aimed at promoting computing education lines up at all with giving priority to commercial entities trying to misappropriate an educational tool for commercial use?

I understand not being able to explicitly barr people from using it commercially but since when is it justified that a charity behaves like a profit seeking entity partnering with other profit seeking entities?


Frankly I hope that people ultimately abandon the Pi and people like Jeff stop basing their own business as youtuber influencers on predominantly just Raspberry Pi content until the foundation basically stops behaving like this and if anybody is interested, should probably investigate a query into seeking to remove their charity and very likely tax exempt status if they're just in the business of selling cheap single board computers to corporations and nothing more.
 
Let me quote something, straight out of the Raspberry Pi foundation website as of right now:



Now does any part of a charity based foundation aimed at promoting computing education lines up at all with giving priority to commercial entities trying to misappropriate an educational tool for commercial use?

I understand not being able to explicitly barr people from using it commercially but since when is it justified that a charity behaves like a profit seeking entity partnering with other profit seeking entities?


Frankly I hope that people ultimately abandon the Pi and people like Jeff stop basing their own business as youtuber influencers on predominantly just Raspberry Pi content until the foundation basically stops behaving like this and if anybody is interested, should probably investigate a query into seeking to remove their charity and very likely tax exempt status if they're just in the business of selling cheap single board computers to corporations and nothing more.

Agreed that the Foundation's prioritization of industrial/commercial products is not in line with their vision, but I can understand them prioritizing those who need it to maintain their business.The RPi Foundation is the parent organization, but it's actually Raspberry Pi Ltd. that makes and sells the hardware; currently they pass on all their profits to the Foundation, and I wonder if for-profit motivation is in there somewhere. There were rumors a year ago of them going public, although they haven't yet. Remains to be seen if they will keep to their non-profit roots or not.
 
Let me quote something, straight out of the Raspberry Pi foundation website as of right now:



Now does any part of a charity based foundation aimed at promoting computing education lines up at all with giving priority to commercial entities trying to misappropriate an educational tool for commercial use?

I understand not being able to explicitly barr people from using it commercially but since when is it justified that a charity behaves like a profit seeking entity partnering with other profit seeking entities?


Frankly I hope that people ultimately abandon the Pi and people like Jeff stop basing their own business as youtuber influencers on predominantly just Raspberry Pi content until the foundation basically stops behaving like this and if anybody is interested, should probably investigate a query into seeking to remove their charity and very likely tax exempt status if they're just in the business of selling cheap single board computers to corporations and nothing more.
A lot of education companies package them up with content for teaching coding, so I can see why they've tried to protect that relationship, instead of just going to the DIY market where there's lots of Pi alternatives with more grunt.
 
Let me quote something, straight out of the Raspberry Pi foundation website as of right now:



Now does any part of a charity based foundation aimed at promoting computing education lines up at all with giving priority to commercial entities trying to misappropriate an educational tool for commercial use?

I understand not being able to explicitly barr people from using it commercially but since when is it justified that a charity behaves like a profit seeking entity partnering with other profit seeking entities?


Frankly I hope that people ultimately abandon the Pi and people like Jeff stop basing their own business as youtuber influencers on predominantly just Raspberry Pi content until the foundation basically stops behaving like this and if anybody is interested, should probably investigate a query into seeking to remove their charity and very likely tax exempt status if they're just in the business of selling cheap single board computers to corporations and nothing more.
charity doesnt pay the bills.
 
I don't get the fascination with these machines. You can grab mini-pcs with windows for a little over 100$ during sales - with much faster cpu, better cooling, more ram, ssd as storage etc
 
I don't get the fascination with these machines. You can grab mini-pcs with windows for a little over 100$ during sales - with much faster cpu, better cooling, more ram, ssd as storage etc

If you can run Windblows in 350Mb all together with the desktop, you'll realise why people are using them.

Most of us are using them for a single purpose, like music player attached with a decent DAC...
 
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