The Single Board Computer hobby is not dying, as Jeff Gerling said. But the Raspberry Pi for private users is almost dead.
Long live the alternatives:
The Raspberry Pi shortage lasted from late 2021 through most of 2022, with some models experiencing backorders into late 2023. During the peak of the supply chain crisis, wait times were severe:
- Lead Times: Resellers like Farnell and Digi-Key quoted wait times ranging from 372 days to 52 weeks (one year) for models like the 4GB Pi 4.
- Production Capacity: The company produced roughly 500,000 units per month, which was insufficient to clear a backlog of one to two million units.
- Recovery: CEO Eben Upton stated that supply was expected to return to pre-pandemic levels in Q2 2023, with full availability expected by the second half of the year. By mid-2023, the company began shipping “million-unit months,” indicating the end of the acute shortage.
But if we look at the ranking of the 50 best-selling single board computers sold at DIGITEC Switzerland, the best selling SBC is a Pi for around 170 USD. Do private users spend so much money for a single board computer?
But which are the alternatives? On the best-selling 50 single board computers from DIGITEC Switzerland, we did not find a convincing alternative.
And the Raspberry Pi s cost double the price it was before the Pandemics. So we will buy used devices until this big Opera about the Raspberry Pi is over. Since does not usually the ratio of price to power with products gets better with time? But this seems not to be the case with Raspberry Pi s . So is not the Single Board Computer dying, but only the Raspberry Pi for private use dying?
With which other product than the Raspberry Pi was such a huge Opera about Pandemics and companies which where not be able to deliver? We do not know of another one. And would Swiss companies not have immediately retreated from selling Pi s for private use, if such a shortage happened? Then we would have Orange Pi s in the stores in Switzerland. But unfortunately, the Raspberry Pi is not a Swiss quality product, but a product from U.K. And is Raspberry not a company which continues to sell the Raspberry Pi for private users, until the Pi for private use is completely dead?