Raspberry Pi $25 Linux Computer Now In Production (Video)

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Timothy Lord caught up with Raspberry Pi product leader Eben Upton at CES. The long-awaited $25 Linux single-board computers are finally being shipped from the Chinese factory where they're being assembled and will be available for sale in just a few weeks. Eben talks not only about the Raspberry Pi boards and the add-on Gertboard, but about the eBay auction that helped finance Raspberry Pi. Timothy says he considers Eben Upton one of his "personal tech-world heroes." After watching this video, maybe he'll be one of yours, too. Read on below to watch.

Auctioning versus selling, optimum pricing

[chrb]

$25 is under valued given the demand that there is for this device. They should consider auctioning some percentage of the first batch on ebay, and then use the extra profits to fund further development. I know plenty of people who would happily bid up to $75 if given the chance.

Re:Auctioning versus selling, optimum pricing

[betterunixthanunix]

Pricing it higher would defeat the point. They wanted to make a computer that was affordable and reasonably powerful.

Re:Even Cheaper DIY?

[Anonymous Coward]

They are basically impossible for hobbyists to assemble without specialised equipment. Soldering is done by reflow - the company would need to supply a solder mask stencil to every purchaser. These are usually made from stainless steel, are reused hundreds or thousands of times, and can be more expensive to produce than a single circuit board. For highest reliability, most components require specific temperature profile curves to be followed in a programmable reflow oven. If you mess up the soldering of a BGA chip, they need to be removed and reballed, which is very difficult without specialised equipment. Automated circuit board assembly is very efficient - components are supplied on reels or on trays and are placed by a robot. For a kit, someone would need to count out, pack, and label each component - the kit market is comparatively small, so there aren't industrial sized machines that will do this automatically. So even if you could buy a kit, it would probably be more expensive than a fully assembled board, and there would be a minuscule chance of it working the first time. If you did actually have the skills and equipment to assemble such a board at home, you would know that the assembled price is so low that it would not be worth your time.

Re:Auctioning versus selling, optimum pricing

[BetterSense]

I agree completely."Not charging enough" seems to be a classic blunder for these kind of grassroots startup hardware efforts. I watched the Open Pandora and Always Innovating Touchbook under development for years, until the more established industry finally got around to producing mass-market semi-equivalents and their window of glory was passed by before they could ramp up. There was enough demand for either that they could have easily taken preorders for twice or 3 times the price they wanted. Pre-order customers, frustrated with how long it was taking, would literally offer to pay more to take delivery sooner, but ... they were fixated on selling their product for some magic-number price, rather than what they could get for it.

Re:HD Alarm clock...

[ledow]

Ah, Slashdot. The only post-2000 website that can't understand Euro symbols or British pound-signs.