The Raspberry Pi is facing big cost problems
In a blog post, the developer Jeff Geerling explains why he thinks it will be a while before the Raspberry Pi is available again For the general public at the established price or at least at a considerable cost within the market.
For those who are unaware of the "Raspberry Pi", you should know that this is an ARM based single board computer the size of a credit card. The Raspberry Pi supports the execution of several variants of the free operating system GNU/Linux, in particular Debian, and also works with Windows.
About the topic, Personally, I must mention that find the article written by Jeff Geerling makes me understand that the situation is not only in my country, since not long ago I had realized (to a certain extent), that the costs of the Raspberry Pi 4 since its launch until then, at least here in my country (Mexico), have been at an exaggerated price.
And giving an example, the cost of a basic RPi 4 is no less than $2000.00 MXN (Mexican pesos) which is approximately 100 dollars/euros (since they are almost on par, a few cents more/less), while the 8GB version exceeds 150 dollars (about $3000.00 MXN). While on the side of the RPi 400 not to mention.
It could be understood to a certain extent that this side of the pond (Latin America) is a forgotten point and therefore the resellers have to increase the cost and personally it is something that I hate, since projects like this or say the Librem, PinePhone, among others, I've missed them because it's impossible to get hold of one of these.
Taking into consideration the costs of the RPi here in Mexico, (at this time of writing the article), the truth They force you to opt for other alternatives, that for an average cost of $3500.00 MXN (about 175 dollars), with this you get a ryzen 3 2400g combo and even with luck a ryzen 5 5600g, of course you have to take into account that you would lack the power source, but well if one thinks in comparison of power, there is simply no starting point.
At this point, I know many will think and tell me that “an RPi as such is not meant to be on a par with desktop components and that in terms of utility, the RPi has a wide range of projects. The point is to only make a cost comparison and that in many cases, the majority would opt for a desktop computer, which maybe yes, "naked" (speaking of not using a cabinet) but it is functional and does not really affect its operation. .
Now moving on to the topic of Jeff Geerling's post, it mentions that:
“To be clear, I am referring to conventional Raspberry Pi SBCs such as the Pi 4 Model B, Compute Module 4, Pi Zero 2W, and in many cases even the Pi 400. Pico and Pico W are available, at least at most markets I've looked at (local shortages still exist, but usually not for months or years),” says Geerling.
And you have to remember that at the time "Eben Upton", founder of Raspberry Pi, I announce a “temporary” increase on the price of the Raspberry Pi 4. Upton said the price of the 4GB Raspberry Pi 2 would drop from $35 to $45 and a previously discontinued version of the Raspberry Pi 4 with 1GB of RAM would be reintroduced at $35.
“In February 2020, we announced that we would be discontinuing the 1GB variant of the Raspberry Pi 4 and moving to the 2GB product at our list price of $35. Unfortunately, the increased cost caused by the current shortage means that this product is currently not economically viable at this reduced price. So we're temporarily lowering it to $45," Eben Upton said.
For Gerling, Raspberry Pi is one of the few providers from SBC (perhaps the only one) that addresses the most important feature for continued end-user happiness and adoption, "the support".
“Instead of throwing hardware at the wall, seeing what fails, and relying on developer communities to support their hardware with distributions like Armbian, Raspberry Pi actively supports its boards, directly from the original Pi Model B. They continually improve their documentation and focus on a great end user experience for both beginners and advanced users.
There is an important factor that also comes into play., and is that the Raspberry Pi can only produce a limited quantity of Pi models based on the Broadcom BCM2711 SoC. It's the same problem that plagues automakers. Even giants like Nvidia, Intel, AMD and Apple are affected.
Due to shortage, Raspberry Pi has not been able to increase production to meet demand, so they have to prioritize where the Pis they make go…and today they are still prioritizing OEM partners over end-user retailers selling individual units.
According to Geerling, this is far from ideal, and many in the community/manufacturer feel betrayed by an organization that has grown rapidly thanks to popular adoption of the Raspberry Pi since 2012.
"How many commercial and industrial users of Pi would incorporate it into their products (and thus depend on Pi's actions for their very survival) wasn't it because of the huge community of individual developers, manufacturers, tinkerers, and educators who have made the Raspberry Pi as popular as it is today? He asks.
Finally if you want to know more about it, I invite you to visit Jeff Geerling's original article on the subject on his website. The link is this.