Raspberry Pi Restrictions Lifted, True Mass Availability

The Raspberry Pi, that very small critter that somehow manages to browse the web and play 1080p video, finally has no supply problems.

Raspberry Pi is an ARM-based system the size of a credit card. It was envisioned as a platform for Linux programming, but it caught on with the public in such a way that the press has been keeping its eyes on it like a hawk. It helped that the device can turn any TV into a Smart TV, as long as the display has an HDMI input. That said, the product sold out on several occasions. Even we had to wait for many weeks before our order reached us. Huge pre-orders played a significant part in the lack of availability. About 350,000 models were requested, even with a limited number of Raspberry Pi per customer.

There should be more than enough in stock now though. The Raspberry Pi foundation now makes around 4,000 a day. “Customers worldwide can now order multiple quantities of the Raspberry Pi Model B board, along with the associated accessories, including SD cards pre-loaded with the latest Raspberry Pi operating system and Raspberry Pi cases for safer storage. Customers will be provided with a forecast future delivery date when placing their order, and these orders will be fulfilled after all orders placed before 16th July have been shipped,” said a spokesperson from RS Components. To place an order, all it takes is a visit to http://pi.rsdelivers.com, so if you're a student, an HTPC enthusiast or just a curious experimenter, you can let loose, assuming you don't want the Odroid-X instead. 

As a recap, Raspberry Pi has a 700 MHz ARM11 processor, a bunch of ports (mini HDMI, USB, LAN, etc.) and 255 MB RAM (not that much but, then again, this is small enough to hold in a palm, so it's still quite a feat). “Element14 are pleased to announce that we will now be taking volume orders for Raspberry Pi Model B, on an expected delivery lead-time of 4-6 weeks, as our order backlog improves and our production capacity continues to increase,“ said element14/Premier Farnell.

Raspberry Pi 
Image credits to Raspberry Pi Foundation

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