Good luck getting hold of the latest Raspberry Pi any time soon
No end in sight for Raspberry Pi shortage
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The founder ofRaspberry Pihas confirmed that getting hold of the latest models will continue to be a struggle for regular consumers for the foreseeable future.
Contacted by Jeff Geerling, a prominent YouTuber whose videos regularly feature Pi boards of one variety or another, Eben Upton conceded that the problemsdescribed back in Aprilare yet to be resolved.
Specifically, Raspberry Pi has suffered from a variety of supply chain issues that have made it impossible to produce boards in high volumes, a situation made worse by the allocation of limited manufacturing capacity to larger players.
Raspberry Pi shortage
In December 2021, wereportedon the beginnings of the shortage of Raspberry Pi models. At the time, official resellers were estimating they would be unable to ship some of the most popular SKUs for many months.
In a blog post, Upton said he expected supply chain challenges to continue “throughout much of 2022”, with the problem set to become less acute as more manufacturing capacity comes online and logistics bottlenecks are resolved.
However, the recovery has been hindered by other external factors too. Namely, the shortage has been aggravated by a plague of scalpers, who are using automated bots to scoop up any supply that does hit the shelves, with a view to flipping it for a profit on secondary markets.
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A similar problem has made it extremely difficult to get hold of the latestgraphics cardsandvideo game consoles, some of which have been sold on at exorbitant prices.
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Worse, Upton told Geerling that while Raspberry Pi ringfences a percentage of stock for regular consumers, the priority is currently to deliver on large-scale orders from OEMs and industrial customers. The rationale is that, otherwise, companies reliant on Pi boards might “wither and die”.
As noted by our sister siteTom’s Hardware, the best bet for hobbyists hoping to get their hands on a Raspberry Pi is currently to monitor stock tracking sites (likerpilocator), pay a premium in the secondary market, or opt for a more costly Raspberry Pi alternative. An unpalatable selection of choices, if ever there was one.
Joel Khalili is the News and Features Editor at TechRadar Pro, covering cybersecurity, data privacy, cloud, AI, blockchain, internet infrastructure, 5G, data storage and computing. He’s responsible for curating our news content, as well as commissioning and producing features on the technologies that are transforming the way the world does business.
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