December 22, 2022
Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton announced in a recent blog post that 100,000 units would be entering the supply chain, and that stock levels would return to pre-pandemic levels in the latter half of 2023.
This means that the supply chain shortage has influenced the normal cycle of Raspberry Pi releases, and that the Raspberry Pi 5 will not be available in 2023.
During an interview with ExplainingComputers, Eben Upton discusses the supply pressures that have impacted the availability of single-board computers, which appears to be confirmation of the bad news. After eighteen months of “restricted availability,” Upton says the company is ready to set aside hundreds of thousands of units for retail customers.
He observes that the companies primarily consuming the existing supply of Pi units are “mom-and-pop operations” that have based their hardware products on the Pi platform and purchase a few hundred Pis for their needs. As a result of the ongoing supply chain recovery, the Raspberry Pi 5 is unlikely to be released in 2023.
According to Upton, the company still has a considerable backlog of orders from commercial customers. It must navigate the backlog while also reviving stocks with resellers who serve individual developers.
Upton went on to say that the recovery year is there to help Raspberry Pi and the technology industry recover from the double-whammy of a pandemic and a global chip shortage, both of which have caused a global slowdown.
The sources for this piece include an article in ZDNet.
