75,000 Raspberry Pi's by August

[Dos_Box]

It seems that the production lines are ramping up and initial supply problems are sorting themselves out. It also appears that RS Components were shocked that demand was so high: 75,000 Raspberry Pi baked before August ? The Register

 

RS Components, one of two distributors for the Raspberry Pi, says the 75,000 of the tiny computers are burbling through the manufacturing supply chain and will be ready for release “in July to August”.

Speaking at a press event in Sydney today, ANZ Country Manager Jeremy Edward said many buyers of the computer come from within RS Components' traditional customer base of hobbyists and engineers. Many are repeat buyers who he said already likely possess the programming and electronics skills the Pi is intended to foster.

 

 

But RS Components is taking steps to make the Pi more available to its intended audience and to the 300,000 buyers who are still waiting for their byte of a Pi. CM Lim, the company's Asia Pacific head of Electronics Marketing, said the company is looking at every link in the supply chain to meet demand that “took everybody by surprise”.

 

 

One step in that process is a new order procedure that sees orders opened to just 15,000 buyers every two days. Organising buyers into batches is hoped to streamline the manufacturing process.

The effect of the Pi on RS Components' overall business is mixed. Edward said the company “won't make money, but might get famous.” He also said that the advent of the Pi has dented sales of other single board computers.

“Pi sales have overtaken Arduino in an instant,” he said, attributing the surge of interest to the Pi's small price and the wealth of developer tools it offers. ®

 

[plexer]

Interesting, I see arduinos being used in different areas to the Pi

 

Ben

[SimpleSi]

I'm sure the previous email I had from RS said 75,000 for June/July and that would only cover the number of people who registered on day 1

 

Si

[mats]

Interesting, I see arduinos being used in different areas to the Pi

 

Ben

 

Agree - arduinos are great for getting close to the hardware, hacking (er, learning about) C and making tiny, low power circuits. A Pi is a much more complex horse for a different course. Be sad to see Arduino losing sales / penetration because of the Pi hype.

[zag]

Had mine for a couple of weeks now, its nothing special to be honest. Far too slow for most applications.

[pcstru]

He also said that the advent of the Pi has dented sales of other single board computers. “Pi sales have overtaken Arduino in an instant,”

 

A good example of a claim not being backed up by the evidence cited in the very next sentence. He actually said that Pi sales have overtaken Arduino. He did not say that Arduino sales are down since the release of the Pi. Sloppy reporting.

 

Arduino & Pi are in a different league - even in price. The core Arduino component is around £3/4 for the AtMega 328. Meanwhile try interfacing a Pi to an L3G4200D based Gyroscope sensor. The quick and easy way is probably to plug in a USB2Serial and then sit an arduino on the end of it talking to the Gyro board.

[mavhc]

They'll probably expand too fast, doubling production every few months, then make the strawberry pi, half the price and speed, but have issues with the graphics chip, and have warehouses full they can't sell as it's past christmas, then be bought by olivetti

[SimpleSi]

Had mine for a couple of weeks now, its nothing special to be honest. Far too slow for most applications.

 

I'll take it off your hands for you

 

Si

PS Too slow for what BTW?

[zag]

I'll take it off your hands for you

 

Si

PS Too slow for what BTW?

 

So far i've tried web browsing, digital signage, web server, libre office, gimp

 

All were pretty much unusable due to the slow graphics screen refresh and the pathetic cpu. Just as an example, gimp takes over a minute to load!

 

If they can get X working with the onboard accelerated graphics then it might have some hope but for now I cant think of any useful applications.

[sted]

have you tried rdp and if so does that work at a sensible speed

[mavhc]

The software's still beta really I suppose

[sted]

well i just got an e-mail from rs saying i could order mine not sure if im as bothered about one now as i was though