9 ms·

Raspberry Pi becomes best-selling UK computer ever as sales top 5M

82 points by benn_88 12y ago

_lce0 12y ago
do you know where can I buy a 35$ PI 2 in the US? All places I've tried they are ~50$
- mitchell_h 12y ago
  http://www.element14.com/ http://www.element14.com/ has 377 rPI2 model Bs. All are $35+shipping. I don't work for them in anyway, it's just where i bought my current PI.
- homersapien 12y ago
  Microcenter has the B+ for $25, but they are in-store only.
- bronson 12y ago
  MCM Electronics and Newark are authorized US distributors: http://www.mcmelectronics.com http://www.mcmelectronics.com http://newark.com http://newark.com Both are divisions of Premier Farnell.
bencollier49 12y ago
I guess they just beat the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the Wikipedia page for that has sales at 5 million.
tdicola 12y ago
Wow I was curious and it looks like there were only ever about 5-6 million Apple II computers produced (according to Wikipedia). That's pretty darn amazing that the Pi is already on track to surpass the Apple II--what I remember as the most ubiquitous and well loved computer for learning when I grew up in the 80's. I think it's officially time for anyone who doubted the Pi to eat crow. I know I jumped on the bandwagon and never thought it would be worthwhile. Now I own a couple of them and love them!
- joezydeco 12y ago
  I remain skeptical that all 5 million units are in daily use. A healthy fraction are probably in serious use by skilled embedded developers and a certain range of users like XBMC fans. Another serious fraction are probably using them for the actual educational purposes of the system. But I fear that the majority are sitting in desk drawers, booted once and tried and then left to gather dust. I compare them to treadmills. Some buy them and use them religiously but most buy them with great intentions and leave it at that.
  - tdicola 12y ago
    Does it really matter? I'm sure countless Apple II's, etc. were bought and barely used too.
    - joezydeco 12y ago
      Kind of does matter when we're comparing the relative success of the two devices. We know about the ecosystem that sprung up from the Apple ][ because we have history to look back upon. All the firms that sold software (I still miss Beagle Bros). All the magazines. All the books. All the accessories. I just don't see that same ecosystem surrounding the RPi, especially if 5 million users are involved. A couple of heavily trafficked forums don't really seem like the same thing. And given the Apple ]['s price ($1,200 in 1978 dollars or $4,700 in today's money), they were probably not as quickly tossed aside once interest waned. This was a serious a purchase as a used car.
      - bduerst 12y ago
        Different eras, different mediums. I think the success is correlated in the markets that they are driving though. RPi wasn't the first microcomputing board (Arduino was introduced 2005) but it definitely popularized them. Now you have intel Edison and a bazillion other tiny computers springing up. It's easy to be skeptical now but I think 10 years from now it will be easier to compare Apple IIe to RPi (good or bad).
sparaker 12y ago
I have always found banana pi to be superior in terms of value for money.
- ce4 12y ago
  Maybe for your personal use case this is true. However note these important things: - Longterm support (former models still being sold) - 100% backwards compatibility (RPi1/2) - fully open source stack including GPU driver Broadcom's VideoCoreIV driver has been open sourced by Broadcom making the RPi well suited for future developments like Mir and Wayland. In contrast, the Banana Pi has a Mali GPU without a proper open source driver (lima development seems currently halted). ARM/Mali open source driver situation explained: http://libv.livejournal.com/26635.html http://libv.livejournal.com/26635.html List of ARM GPUs and driver status: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_graphics_device_driver#ARM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_graphics_d...
  - sparaker 12y ago
    Yes i was strictly speaking in terms of specs. You are right in this regards, rasberry pi has much better eco system.
ZeroFries 12y ago
What are people commonly using these things for?
- nfriedly 12y ago
  I'm using a couple right now to demo using IBM Watson services in real world (physical/IoT) applications - you can expect a blog post on that in a few weeks. (I work on the Watson team at IBM) I also have one set up as an XBMC media center for streaming netflix and such.
- petemc_ 12y ago
  I've set quite a few up as airprint servers for people. It's great to get a few more years out of an old laserjet.
- stadeschuldt 12y ago
  I have one RPi for logging temperatures in my apartment: http://pi.tafkas.net/temperatures/ http://pi.tafkas.net/temperatures/ And another one is monitoring solar panels on the roof of a house: http://solarpi.tafkas.net http://solarpi.tafkas.net
bonn1 12y ago
The Brits had always a good feeling for 'personal computers' (Sinclair, Amstrad, Acorn)
RoseO 12y ago
I own an original Raspberry Pi model B (still running 24/7 in a project) for which I was on the pre-order from one of the first few batches (I think I just missed out on the first 10,000 or so), I eventually purchased an upgraded model B with 512MB ram and then I instantly purchased the Pi 2. Very useful things, and the progress made is wonderful.
zend3v 12y ago
Call me ignorant, but what is the point of this thing? Couldn't you just learn to program on a normal PC like most people have instead of buying something smaller, or are the potential uses for this thing really as limitless as I'm lead to believe?
- bduerst 12y ago
  You could, but a normal PC would run you more than $50, and would require driver overhead, bios setup, etc. and would probably be overkill for small projects. The purpose of the Pi was to make an small, inexpensive educational board that "just works". The hardware standard makes it easy to flash other instances onto the Pi, and the form factor makes it easier to use with something you couldn't put a PC box next to.
rbanffy 12y ago
I find it quite lovely its CPU is a direct descendant of the one that powered the Acorn Archimedes, which, in turn, was inspired by the 6502 that powered the BBC Micro, the Apple II, the 8-bit Atari family, the PET, the VIC-20, the C-64 and so many others. The Pi stands on the shoulders of a giant on top of a pyramid of giants.

82 points by benn_88 12y ago

_lce0 12y ago

do you know where can I buy a 35$ PI 2 in the US? All places I've tried they are ~50$

mitchell_h 12y ago
http://www.element14.com/ http://www.element14.com/ has 377 rPI2 model Bs. All are $35+shipping. I don't work for them in anyway, it's just where i bought my current PI.
homersapien 12y ago
Microcenter has the B+ for $25, but they are in-store only.
bronson 12y ago
MCM Electronics and Newark are authorized US distributors: http://www.mcmelectronics.com http://www.mcmelectronics.com http://newark.com http://newark.com Both are divisions of Premier Farnell.

bencollier49 12y ago

I guess they just beat the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, the Wikipedia page for that has sales at 5 million.

tdicola 12y ago

Wow I was curious and it looks like there were only ever about 5-6 million Apple II computers produced (according to Wikipedia). That's pretty darn amazing that the Pi is already on track to surpass the Apple II--what I remember as the most ubiquitous and well loved computer for learning when I grew up in the 80's. I think it's officially time for anyone who doubted the Pi to eat crow. I know I jumped on the bandwagon and never thought it would be worthwhile. Now I own a couple of them and love them!

joezydeco 12y ago
I remain skeptical that all 5 million units are in daily use. A healthy fraction are probably in serious use by skilled embedded developers and a certain range of users like XBMC fans. Another serious fraction are probably using them for the actual educational purposes of the system. But I fear that the majority are sitting in desk drawers, booted once and tried and then left to gather dust. I compare them to treadmills. Some buy them and use them religiously but most buy them with great intentions and leave it at that.
- tdicola 12y ago
  Does it really matter? I'm sure countless Apple II's, etc. were bought and barely used too.
  - joezydeco 12y ago
    Kind of does matter when we're comparing the relative success of the two devices. We know about the ecosystem that sprung up from the Apple ][ because we have history to look back upon. All the firms that sold software (I still miss Beagle Bros). All the magazines. All the books. All the accessories. I just don't see that same ecosystem surrounding the RPi, especially if 5 million users are involved. A couple of heavily trafficked forums don't really seem like the same thing. And given the Apple ]['s price ($1,200 in 1978 dollars or $4,700 in today's money), they were probably not as quickly tossed aside once interest waned. This was a serious a purchase as a used car.
    - bduerst 12y ago
      Different eras, different mediums. I think the success is correlated in the markets that they are driving though. RPi wasn't the first microcomputing board (Arduino was introduced 2005) but it definitely popularized them. Now you have intel Edison and a bazillion other tiny computers springing up. It's easy to be skeptical now but I think 10 years from now it will be easier to compare Apple IIe to RPi (good or bad).

sparaker 12y ago

I have always found banana pi to be superior in terms of value for money.

ce4 12y ago
Maybe for your personal use case this is true. However note these important things: - Longterm support (former models still being sold) - 100% backwards compatibility (RPi1/2) - fully open source stack including GPU driver Broadcom's VideoCoreIV driver has been open sourced by Broadcom making the RPi well suited for future developments like Mir and Wayland. In contrast, the Banana Pi has a Mali GPU without a proper open source driver (lima development seems currently halted). ARM/Mali open source driver situation explained: http://libv.livejournal.com/26635.html http://libv.livejournal.com/26635.html List of ARM GPUs and driver status: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_graphics_device_driver#ARM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_and_open-source_graphics_d...
- sparaker 12y ago
  Yes i was strictly speaking in terms of specs. You are right in this regards, rasberry pi has much better eco system.

ZeroFries 12y ago

What are people commonly using these things for?

nfriedly 12y ago
I'm using a couple right now to demo using IBM Watson services in real world (physical/IoT) applications - you can expect a blog post on that in a few weeks. (I work on the Watson team at IBM) I also have one set up as an XBMC media center for streaming netflix and such.
petemc_ 12y ago
I've set quite a few up as airprint servers for people. It's great to get a few more years out of an old laserjet.
stadeschuldt 12y ago
I have one RPi for logging temperatures in my apartment: http://pi.tafkas.net/temperatures/ http://pi.tafkas.net/temperatures/ And another one is monitoring solar panels on the roof of a house: http://solarpi.tafkas.net http://solarpi.tafkas.net

bonn1 12y ago

The Brits had always a good feeling for 'personal computers' (Sinclair, Amstrad, Acorn)

RoseO 12y ago

I own an original Raspberry Pi model B (still running 24/7 in a project) for which I was on the pre-order from one of the first few batches (I think I just missed out on the first 10,000 or so), I eventually purchased an upgraded model B with 512MB ram and then I instantly purchased the Pi 2. Very useful things, and the progress made is wonderful.

zend3v 12y ago

Call me ignorant, but what is the point of this thing? Couldn't you just learn to program on a normal PC like most people have instead of buying something smaller, or are the potential uses for this thing really as limitless as I'm lead to believe?

bduerst 12y ago
You could, but a normal PC would run you more than $50, and would require driver overhead, bios setup, etc. and would probably be overkill for small projects. The purpose of the Pi was to make an small, inexpensive educational board that "just works". The hardware standard makes it easy to flash other instances onto the Pi, and the form factor makes it easier to use with something you couldn't put a PC box next to.

rbanffy 12y ago

I find it quite lovely its CPU is a direct descendant of the one that powered the Acorn Archimedes, which, in turn, was inspired by the 6502 that powered the BBC Micro, the Apple II, the 8-bit Atari family, the PET, the VIC-20, the C-64 and so many others. The Pi stands on the shoulders of a giant on top of a pyramid of giants.