Jeff Geerlin, a prominent YouTuber has traveled to the UK to meet with Eben Upton, CEO of Raspberry Pi. The idea was to talk to him about the shortage problems of the company’s products and review the predictions given in 2022 by Upton.
Despite the fact that interesting data has been given, especially in terms of sales volume, what is interesting is to know what happens with the Pi 5. Unfortunately, the interview goes along another line, which they may have agreed upon before starting.
They sell like hot cakes
Anyone can stop by Amazon to see the price of these products. The Raspberry Pi 4 with 8 GB of RAM is around 200 euros, twice as much as at its launch. This is a high price for a product that is surpassed in power and performance by any Mini PC based on Intel processors.
Upton has pointed out that in the first trimester of occurred between 750,000-800,000 units of Rasberry in its different variations. It may seem like a lot and, really, it is a brutal figure, but it is still insufficient given the great demand. In addition, Upton points out that it is the worst production data since 2015.
It gives really impressive sales figures. Upton says that in 2019 they were sold 6 millions of units, a very good figure. It also says that in 2020 and 2021the number of 7 million Of units. The problem came in 2022when the shortage of chips and the increase in the cost of transport and raw materials generated production problems, falling this year to only 5 million of units sold.
We come, therefore, from 5 million units sold and up to 800,000 units produced in the first quarter of the year. Upton claims that this year it can reach 10 million of units sold. This means selling 1 million units per month, which is bullshit.
If we take the 800,000 units sold, we get that 266,000 units were produced each month. Come on, that would be practically multiplying the monthly production by five, something that makes us unfeasible.
Wrong time for the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W
Upton is asked about one of his simplest plates, but more complete and versatile. The Pi Zero 2 W was released in 2021, within the COVID-19 pandemic, something that was a problem. He was facing a situation never seen in the history of humanity and things went wrong.
never existed hardly stock, producing big problems of availability. But, on the bright side, the chip supply for the Zero 2 W seems to have improved. Upton highlights that due to the shortage of the pandemic “it has not accumulated industrial demand.”
And what about the Raspberry Pi 5?
Being clear, absolutely nothing happens. During the Interview they do not talk at any time about the Raspberry Pi 5. This leads one to think that we will not see it this year and neither the next.
It is possible that, given the given scarcity, they first try to satisfy the demand and then, we will move on to other issues. Also, AI is taking over the industry and launching a Raspberry Pi 5 without taking this factor into account may be a negative (or not).
The truth is that there are many alternatives, such as the Orange Pi 5, which are the great alternative to the Raspberry Pi. More power, more memory and a fairly affordable price are some of its features.
