Wanted to buy a Raspberry Pi.
Currently only seeing kits available in the $90+ range when they have been $20 for just the Pi Zero in the past.
I think the extra $70 is more than the included extras are worth so basically no discount at all for buying a bundle.
Seems like demand is high so no incentive for shops to drop prices.
Any Pi professionals here? How long do you think until prices come back down? Is there are Zero 3 on the way which might lower prices of the older models?
Hopefully soon. The high cost means many of the projects where they were previously cost effective make it no longer so.
It's been like this for a decade since the first release so don't hold your breath. They don't produce anywhere near enough for the demand as it caters for both education sector as well as tinkerers and now even prosumer users.
Back in the UK, the only real way to get one for years was when they were bundled with their official magazine and you had to run around WHSmith shops soon as they opened before they got snapped up and scalped.
"It's been like this for a decade"
I am talking about the more recent rise in prices. But it seems like I made a mistake with the model versions.
I saw someone recently post a deal on the 4B for $159 and thought, wasn't it less than $100 a year ago? But turns out that deal was for the 8GB version not the 4GB which was often around the $100 mark.
So yeah maybe the covid price rises aren't as big as I thought. Just price bumps from shortages?
In terms of overall value with the $90 Pi Zero W (1) starter kit, how much do you think we are paying for the Pi itself?
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/702591
Someone in that deal seems to think $27 for the Pi itself. Feels like more though.
I can make use of the case, otg cable and SD card, but not so much everything else. I don't think $27 for the 32gb SD card is good value, regardless if it has NOOBS on it or not. Let's say the price is $15 for the SD card, that feels like paying $39 for the Pi itself…
There is also an essentials kit by the same store but that is missing the SD card.
Core electronics lists the Raspbery Pi Zero W at $17.95. The official resellers of Rasberry Pi's are not allowed to raise the prices on the boards due to short supply. Bundling a the board into a kit which includes parts you might not want is a backdoor way of maximizing profits within the rules.
The Raspberry Pi CEO says the supply issues should be resolved sometime within the next year.
Update (11/10): A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Upton expects the current shortages to continue for a year, rather than that he expects all stock issues to have been resolved by this time next year. "There’s a vast difference between feeling confident that we’ll be free of shortages in a year and feeling that there will be a year of shortages," Upton told us. To be clearer, this means that he expects the situation to improve over time and to be completely resolved within 12 months.
For some reason I think I missed the notification for your comment.
Thanks you for the Pi CEO statement. That sounds good supply will be back to normal same time next year.
I am in no real rush to get one so I might wait to save a few dollary doos.
Yeah will come down in 10 years…..
Come on you really think there's some Pi insider that is on ozbargain will tell you 🤦
"Come on you really think there's some Pi insider that is on ozbargain will tell you 🤦"
Maybe my questions were too specific and unlikely to be answered. I thought it was worth a try though since there are some Pi deals posted here.
The other point to make is that the Pi Foundation is limited by their staff, their expertise, their deals/business development, and access to off-the-shelf hardware they can find which is actually open-source. And since they're based in UK, they can't compete like the local-Chinese boards. That's why development is slower, costlier, and stocks are fairly low.
I'm pretty disappointed with the Pi 4B, when it was released it was a buggy mess. They shipped it as is, and said "the community will fix it". Yes they did, it took some time, but they shouldn't have to. Especially considering the price premium they charged for the Pi 4B compared to alternatives. That's why I recommended people check out the Odroid N2/N2+ instead which had much better drivers, faster, cheaper and open-source. I guess what separates the RaPi from the others is; known-brand, HUGE community, open-source…. and that's what you wait and pay for. If there's a niche issue, if you Google it or check Github you can usually find someone else with that problem and sometimes find the solution, where it's harder or not-possible with alternatives.
So I don't know what's coming. The RK3588 sets the new bar for the new-generation of cheap computing or SBC, and so far it is impressive. Its not exactly open-source. We should hopefully see alternatives from other companies such as Unisoc, AMLogic, Allwinner, Broadcom, VIA, Texas Instruments, Octavo, etc etc. There are very few AMD and Intel options, and a lot of Intel-Atom solutions though. But the Pi is usually the later-entry in the market, the more expensive option in the market, and usually a little slower-hardware in the market. It would be nice to see the more traditional companies enter this market such as more AMD, Intel Core-i, Qualcomm Snapdragon, Samsung Exynos, and MediaTek Dimensity.
"That's why I recommended people check out the Odroid N2/N2+ instead which had much better drivers, faster, cheaper and open-source."
Ok thanks I did not know there were cheaper alternatives. I will have to do some more research on that but thanks for all the info.
There's a large number of single board computers (SBC's) which which run Linux on an ARM CPU. Many are clearly inspired by RPi and have a similar form factor. Be warned that they are not 100% compatible - you won't be able to take a Raspberry Pi image and boot it on one of these alternatives.
I recommend this youtube channel which has short reviews of many SBCs - ExplainingComputers - single board computers
And when will the next major version of Pi come out? Feels like years ago the current version was released.
maybe ask magnum pi he might know…
Need basic IO? Arduino
Need low power processing? USFF PC like a used Optiplex
Need basic IO? Arduino
Or a Raspberry Pi Pico! Cheaper than Arduino, way better, easily available, and you can even use the Arduino IDE.
$7: https://core-electronics.com.au/raspberry-pi-pico.html
Want Bluetooth and Wifi? Get an ESP32.
And yes, so many cheap used USFF PCs out there. No point complaining about lack of Pis with so many good alternatives.
A Pi makes sense if you need both GPIO and a full-powered computer together, but how many people are actually buying them for that?
I'm pretty sure that all the Raspberry Pis have been bought by Russia and Ukraine to control their drones.
3.14159265 months