Updated: Raspberry Pi Commercial Version in 3Q12
Raspberry Pi co-creator David Braben said a "commercial" version of his credit card-sized computer will be launched in 3Q12. Updated with a response from Eben Upton.
Note: this article has been updated based on information provided by Raspberry Pi. My apologies for any confusion stemming from the original publication. -KP
Just after Monday's report that the first batch of boards for Raspberry Pi will be completed on February 20, a "commercial" version of the $25/$35 credit card-sized computer was revealed for a 3Q12 release. Co-creator David Braben is hoping this will be the actual public release timeframe given the team doesn't endure additional delays as reported earlier this week.
"We've not got a pre-order [system] for the commercial one yet because we need to determine the price, determine roughly when it's going to be," he told Eurogamer. "We have a good idea that it will be sort of in Q3 this year, but we can't be certain. There are a lot of variables in terms of what we need to get ready. We don't know completely but we're moving very quickly."
According to the FAQ, the initial run of boards slated to launch this month will be 10,000 uncased development-style boards with further productions runs starting once these have been sold. Later on this summer, the team plans to sell Raspberry Pi with and without a case.
The educational release is scheduled to launch sometime around 3Q12 (as Braben indicated) , and will come with a kid-targeted software stack, a heap of written support materials, and a standard case. The FAQ doesn't mention anything about a "commercial" or "consumer" version.
Eben Upton, executive director of the Raspberry Pi Foundation, sent over an explanation in regards to the boards offered this month, and the "commercial" version slated for later this year.
"Anyone will be able to buy model A and model B units, uncased, at the $25 and $35 price points from launch, with a Debian or Fedora software stack," he told Tom's. "Later in the year, we intend to add a case and a polished educational software stack; we hope to squeeze the cased version into the same price point, and we expect that educational users and people who wish to use the board as a home media center will choose this package in the long term."
"The 'consumer release' that Eurogamer is talking about is actually the educational release," reads the latest Raspberry Pi update. Raspberry Pi also reassures everyone that model A will be $25 and model B will cost $35. These prices will not change.
"Price is such an important part of what we’re doing in trying to change the way people use computers that we’d be totally, totally mad to move the price point," the website states. "The educational release’s case will not add to the price if we can possibly help it."
To learn more about the two Raspberry Pi models, head here.
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Is that vapor I see wafting from these endless articles about the Raspberry Pi shipping dates being constantly pushed back?
I'd drop 50-70$ on one of these.
these Raspberry Pi things are too good to be true mang
Crapberry Puke - $699 available Q5 2059
Even I consider that to still be a bargain.
I'll buy one of the initial developer versions so I can start it as a little side-hobby and learn to solve problems I find as I use it.
This way I might be able to help other owners. I mean sure I have no real experience but I see this as a way of learning. I can experiment with the thing a little, build myself a case and mess around with power supplies to power it all and play with some coding at the same time.
It's the perfect tinkering thingy. And everyone here loves to tinker
Well this sucks.. So much for getting everyone's hopes up for the 20th of Feb release date that has been set! Great!
I'd buy one if I had the time to figure it out. These things are some of the most interesting little pieces of technology I seen in a while.
There are a number of competitors. Some of them having 1GHz or bigger, up to dualcore CPU and 1GB RAM, WiFi, bluetooth. See Cotton Candy. Any of them can step in and end this nonsense with Raspberry Pi. Was great idea, poorly implemented and delayed too much. Next! Better! I'm off this train. This looks like with ASUS EEE PC line. Started very slowly but picked up very well and now we have loads of netbooks from each manufacturer.
People, let's calm down a bit, OK? We're talking about two different things here: general "developer edition" availability and general "consumer edition" availability.
What hopefully is going to be sold beginning late this month is the "developer edition", which is a barebones board, without ANY extras. You'll have to solder the non-standard I/O leads by hand (it already ships with HDMI, USB, Ethernet, Coax and 3.5mm, it will be fully functional out of the box, you only need those leads to connect to other devices, like serial buses, to control other peripherals), and you won't receive the SD card containing the OS, a power adapter or even a case. Just the board, period, you're expected to source your own I/O leads, SD card and power supply, which you may or may not already have. That's the reason the first version will be targeted at developers, you're expected to do most of the grunt work.
This article seems to clarify what most of the people hanging around the RasPi forums already knew about: the first "developer edition" (let's call it that way) batches are NOT targeted to schools and end users, though they may buy them if they so wish. From what I've read from Liz and others in the Foundation in the past, this seems to have been the general idea since the start.
I also remember reading that a "user-friendly" (meaning, with a case, power supply, maybe even I/O leads) was expected "later", and that one would be the one targeted at schools and general public.
I might be dead wrong here, but I REALLY don't think the RaspberryPi Foundation will prevent anyone wanting to buy a board from the first batches to do so...
Let me add to Miguels post. The board will be going on sale to *whomever wants one*, at the end of this month, February. It's not really a 'developer' edition - it's the same board as will be sold all year. I have no idea where Tom's hardware got the idea it's not generally available until q3, that really is completely wrong, and they really need to change their article which contains a number of 'untruths'
Let me add to Miguels post. The board will be going on sale to *whomever wants one*, at the end of this month, February. It's not really a 'developer' edition - it's the same board as will be sold all year. I have no idea where Tom's hardware got the idea it's not generally available until q3, that really is completely wrong, and they really need to change their article which contains a number of 'untruths'
There you have it - unless I'm much mistaken, one of the developers has spoken.
Liz from Raspberry Pi here.
This is totally wrong, and we're trying to chase it up with the magazine who printed the original article; I've just mailed Tom's as well. We're releasing at the end of the month to absolutely anyone who wants to buy one; the original interview appears to have mistaken the educational release, which *is* happening later in the year with a specific for-kids software stack, for the commercial one, which is happening at the END OF FEBRUARY. (Not on the 20th, which is when the boards roll off the line, but a few days later when they've all been tested.)
The prices are totally, absolutely, completely set in stone at $25 and $35. As I said in my mail to Tom's Hardware, they're such an important part of the change to the way we use computers that we're trying to make, we'd be quite mad to deviate from them - unless we can manage to deviate downwards, which we hope we may be able to do later on.
It's like every other paragraph is another lie...
Liz from Raspberry Pi here.This is totally wrong, and we're trying to chase it up with the magazine who printed the original article; I've just mailed Tom's as well. We're releasing at the end of the month to absolutely anyone who wants to buy one; the original interview appears to have mistaken the educational release, which *is* happening later in the year with a specific for-kids software stack, for the commercial one, which is happening at the END OF FEBRUARY. (Not on the 20th, which is when the boards roll off the line, but a few days later when they've all been tested.)The prices are totally, absolutely, completely set in stone at $25 and $35. As I said in my mail to Tom's Hardware, they're such an important part of the change to the way we use computers that we're trying to make, we'd be quite mad to deviate from them - unless we can manage to deviate downwards, which we hope we may be able to do later on.
Are they selling in the UK or will I need to import?
Are they selling in the UK or will I need to import?
I can answer that one.
The boards are manufactured somewhere in Asia, I believe, but they'll be brought to the UK, and sold from there (and also from the US, if memory serves me right). Liz has already mentioned they'd like to have local resellers in different countries, so that might happen down the line, too.
Do take a look at the RaspberryPi FAQ, over here.
Miguel
Liz from Raspberry Pi here.This is totally wrong, and we're trying to chase it up with the magazine who printed the original article; I've just mailed Tom's as well. We're releasing at the end of the month to absolutely anyone who wants to buy one; the original interview appears to have mistaken the educational release, which *is* happening later in the year with a specific for-kids software stack, for the commercial one, which is happening at the END OF FEBRUARY. (Not on the 20th, which is when the boards roll off the line, but a few days later when they've all been tested.)The prices are totally, absolutely, completely set in stone at $25 and $35. As I said in my mail to Tom's Hardware, they're such an important part of the change to the way we use computers that we're trying to make, we'd be quite mad to deviate from them - unless we can manage to deviate downwards, which we hope we may be able to do later on.
Thanks a lot for clearing that up Liz. It's good to know you guys care about these kinds of articles and actively pursue them to ensure everything is correct.
I think we should get the facts from the source before trashing the efforts of a NON-PROFIT organization trying to improve the education of young minds with a low cost device capable of fueling imagination and ambition in the future computer scientists and programmers of our little planet. Go to raspberrypi.org and get the facts.
Too mush haters here... get a life, eat some raspberries...
raspberrypi's website talks about this interview and how it is basically completely wrong. check it out.
"Those who purchase a Raspberry Pi unit now will not receive leads, a power supply or SD cards, but the missing items can be bought at the same time from the store."
Really? Why would you sell a unit without the power supply and then offer it at an additional cost? Wouldn't the board be worthless without power?
This is starting to sound like $25/$35 is nothing but a marketing ploy, in order to generate buzz about their product. The actual product will most likely be over $100 after you add all of items you would expect to be included!
Never mind my previous statement, I just read Liz Upton's post. It looks like $25/$35 is the price and set to release at the end of February 2012.
*** NOTE ***
THIS ARTICLE IS WRONG.
For the REAL details, go to www.raspberrypi.org
There SHOULD BE units shipping end of this month (probably not enough to meet demand, but some should ship.
"Those who purchase a Raspberry Pi unit now will not receive leads, a power supply or SD cards, but the missing items can be bought at the same time from the store."Really? Why would you sell a unit without the power supply and then offer it at an additional cost? Wouldn't the board be worthless without power? This is starting to sound like $25/$35 is nothing but a marketing ploy, in order to generate buzz about their product. The actual product will most likely be over $100 after you add all of items you would expect to be included!
It is powered by the micro usb port. not exactly a spendy item to get one's hands on if you don't already have a usb cable.
Tom's, you really should take this article down and redo it, its still totally confused and worthless.......
Agreed, take this down.
Waiting, Mastercard in hand... :-)
Here's the correct info straight from the horses mouth:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/633
Tom's you upset a lot of people it seems.
"Those who purchase a Raspberry Pi unit now will not receive leads, a power supply or SD cards, but the missing items can be bought at the same time from the store."Really? Why would you sell a unit without the power supply and then offer it at an additional cost? Wouldn't the board be worthless without power? This is starting to sound like $25/$35 is nothing but a marketing ploy, in order to generate buzz about their product. The actual product will most likely be over $100 after you add all of items you would expect to be included!
Please, please, PLEASE take a look at the RaspberryPi's FAQ page before saying stuff like that. Most of the answers you might have are answered there.
Now, to try to make sense of what you said: as already mentioned ad nauseam before, the first batches (before the cased models appear, which will basically be the same thing being sold starting the end of this month, only with an extra pretty box enclosing it), though available for everyone, are geared especially towards, let's face it, people who basically BREATHE technology, either because they are software/hardware developers, or because they're geeks like me, who can't say no to a new hardware piece.
These people are going to be the early adopters, and who will find out interesting ways of working with the RasPi, building custom software and hardware solutions. Those people will most likely 1) already have spare parts (power brick, SD card, keeping in mind some smartphone power bricks should be able to power the RaspberryPi, which means you may not even need to buy one) laying around from earlier builds and/or 2) not care for the extra parts anyway, because they'll have specific needs (like an ultra small/large capacity/speed SD card, power input via the GPIO connector, etc.).
Which means, for those people, $35 will in fact be the required investment, which is all what has been promised since day one, the Foundation has NEVER said $35 would get you an SD card, case or power adapter. You get the motherboard and the CPU, and you customize it to YOUR needs, like any other DIY build.
However, an SD card starts at $5 for 4GB these days, and you can either get an USB->microUSB adapter or a cell phone charger with a microUSB lead for what, $10-$15? Even if you factor in HDMI/Coax and Ethernet cables and an USB KB/mouse combo, you'll be hard-pressed to go over $100 total.
OK, I'm done venting. Liz, Eben, James, if you're reading this, please sorry if I was a bit harsh, and do tell me if I should edit something.
Cheers, everyone.
Miguel
P.S.: Full disclosure: I don't know anyone from the RaspberryPi Foundation, nor do I work for or have any economic interest in it, I'm just a geek that has followed the RasPi story since the early stages.
GOOD TO KNOWN THAT TOMS CONFIRMS IT'S SOURCES.
/end sarcasm
...Which means, for those people, $35 will in fact be the required investment, which is all what has been promised since day one, the Foundation has NEVER said $35 would get you an SD card, case or power adapter. You get the motherboard and the CPU, and you customize it to YOUR needs...
What, no monitor either ?
Rats...
Seriously, this obviously not a retail mass market product 'as is' but a tinker toy for us geeky types.
And we all have boxes full of misc. spare parts like power supplies and unused memory cards.
Think of it as a motherboard purchase with CPU; some parts required :-)
There are a number of competitors. Some of them having 1GHz or bigger, up to dualcore CPU and 1GB RAM, WiFi, bluetooth. See Cotton Candy. Any of them can step in and end this nonsense with Raspberry Pi. Was great idea, poorly implemented and delayed too much. Next! Better! I'm off this train. This looks like with ASUS EEE PC line. Started very slowly but picked up very well and now we have loads of netbooks from each manufacturer.
Yes, it is true that there are other alternatives out there... But have you even compared price? The Cotton Candy will be sold for "well under $200." This means, I'm guessing, more than $100. Beagleboards are already out, and they sell for more than $100 as well. If you've taken the time to read, the Raspberry Pi will be selling for $25-35. This is quite a bit less, if you didn't happen to think about it... The main purpose for this product is learning. I am planning on picking up at least a couple of these for personal use... there are so many applications that this would excel at, for a very low price!
The reason it was delayed was because there was some difficulty obtaining the crystals the RPi was designed to use... As far as I know, it was only delayed 2-3 weeks or so (not sure if there have been other delays in the past... I've only been following it for the past 3 or so weeks). 2-3 weeks isn't too bad, in my opinion.