Hardware Highlight: Raspberry Pi price increased

For those of us that are in the technology field or who like to tinker, Raspberry Pi single board computers (SBCs) are nothing new. With the launch of the original Raspberry Pi in 2012, Pi 2 in 2015, Pi "Zero" in 2015, Pi3 in 2016, Pi 4 in 2019, Pi 400 in 2019, and the Pi Pico in 2021, it's not a secret that these tiny devices are so successful. Running on ARM processors , these credit-card sized computers use very little power, pack a massive punch, and run an ARM version of Debian Linux by default. Raspberry Pi is backed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in association with Broadcom and was originally designed for promoting/teaching basic computer science principles in developing countries. It began selling for use outside of its originally intended purpose pretty quickly; uses like robotics, weather monitoring, industrial automation, education, commercial products, a platform for self-hosted software (Kodi, Jellyfin, NextCloud, Volumio, etc.), Internet of Things (IoT) projects, and even low-powered desktop computing. It became huge within the Open Source community because of the use of Linux and Free and Open Source (FOSS) software by default, and there are hundreds of projects that you can do with them because of it. We often use these for projects and production setups for local home media (movies, photos, music, etc.), VPN setups, digital signage, network-wide ad-blocking, and plenty more!

So now that we're all caught up at a basic level; the news. Due to the chip shortages that are widespread across the world due to the pandemic, Raspberry Pi SBCs are also being effected. Many of us knew it was coming; everything from wood to steel to computer components are in high demand, and due to pandemic-based restrictions on manufacturing – they are all in short supply. Basic economics tells us that low supply and high demand guarantees that prices go up; and in nearly every case, they have. Many retailers that sell various models of the Raspberry Pi have hiked prices (luckily only $5-$10) recently since Eben Upton of Raspberry Pi solemnly posted that the company had to announce its first-ever price increase of Raspberry Pi 4 2GB models – this likely means that prices will rise on most models by many retailers since they will likely run out of stock of certain models which will likely cause them to hike prices of some of their other models due to demand. What this means for now is that you can expect a small price increase on these across the board – whether you're buying them online or buying them from us here at Nottingham Nerds. We promise that we will only increase prices proportionally to what we are charged by our suppliers.

If you're interested in ad-blocking services, music streaming, or digital signage, check out our Services page and our SBC page for more information, and don't hesitate to contact us with any questions or if you'd like to purchase these devices!