The well-known single-board computer Raspberry Pi (Raspberry Pi) has been widely welcomed for its cheap and ease to get, however, in recent years the Raspberry Pi has been facing supply shortages, hundreds of thousands of Raspberry Pi are produced every month most Raspberry Pi has been snatched up by commercial buyers, retailers and end-users are difficult to buy. Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton has repeatedly said that 2023 will be a “recovery year” for Raspberry Pi supply.
Upton reveals that monthly production of Raspberry Pi has recently increased from 400,000 to 600,000, 800,000, and 1 million and that this level can be “sustained until the remaining customer backlog is eliminated and we return to a state of adequate supply.
There are some early signs that supply is returning to normal, at least for some models of Raspberry Pi. UK-based Raspberry Pi distributor Pimoroni announced today that it has lifted purchase restrictions on the 2GB and 4GB Raspberry Pi 4, as well as the Raspberry Pi Zero W (excluding the recently launched Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W).
Even if inventory returns to normal, consumers will still have to deal with the fallout from supply shortages; the 2GB Raspberry Pi 4’s previous “temporary” price increase still hasn’t been restored to its original price, and Upton’s past statements have implied that the company has delayed development of the Raspberry Pi 5 in order to allow inventory of existing models to return to normal (the Raspberry Pi 4 was introduced more than four years ago). (the Raspberry Pi 4 was launched more than four years ago).
While waiting for Raspberry Pi supplies to return to normal, enthusiasts have turned to a variety of other hardware to perform some of the lightweight tasks that the Raspberry Pi excels at, but some of the alternative devices don’t apply to hardware and software projects that were designed specifically for the Raspberry Pi.
