Raspberry Pi's Eben Upton Offers a Gift for the Holidays: Surprise Raspberry Pi SBC Stock

Raspberry Pi's Eben Upton has made an announcement that will be welcomed by anyone whose project has stalled owing to a lack of hardware: additional stock of the company's most popular single-board computer models has been released, and the end of the supply chain issues may be in sight.

"If you’ve tried to buy pretty much anything recently, you’ll realize that we are in the midst of a global supply chain crisis, affecting everything from cement and fenceposts to jewellery and clothing," Raspberry Pi co-founder Upton explains. "Various aspects of this crisis have impacted our business, but persistent shortages of the semiconductor devices we use to build Raspberry Pi single-board computers and modules has been particularly challenging for us (and a lot of other tech businesses) to manage."

While Upton and colleagues can't do much about cement or clothing, they can assist anyone still trying to get their hands on single-board computers — and are doing exactly that, just in time for the holidays, with the release of "a little over a hundred thousand units" of stock into approved resale channels now.

The company hasn't released an exact breakdown of how the stock is split, but Upton has confirmed that the release includes the Raspberry Pi Zero W, Raspberry Pi 3 Model A+, and the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B in 2GB and 4GB RAM variants. It does not, however, appear to include the popular Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, other variants of the Raspberry Pi 4, the Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 range, nor the all-in-one Raspberry Pi 400.

Upton has also confirmed that things are looking up for the new year: "We can say with confidence that, after a lean first quarter, we expect supply to recover to pre-pandemic levels in the second quarter of 2023, and to be unlimited in the second half of the year," he explains. "As we go through the year, it is likely that you’ll see Zero and Zero W come back into general availability first, followed by products like Raspberry Pi 3A+ which do not have an extensive industrial customer base; and, finally, the various versions of Raspberry Pi 4."

There is, however, one casualty: the Raspberry Pi Zero range, which has been hit by a substantial price hike. The original Raspberry Pi Zero, launched at just $5, will see its price doubled to $10, the company has confirmed, while the wireless-capable Raspberry Pi Zero W will go from $10 to $15. To help cushion the blow, though, the one-per-sale restrictions on volume purchases for individuals are to be lifted — once stock has recovered some time in 2023, at least.

More information is available on the Raspberry Pi blog.