Note that the mechanical keyboard is probably one of the major reasons the Pi 500+ took a lot longer to release than the regular 500.

According to an interview on the Pi blog[1], it was "years", with prototypes being built through 2023.

I know the design lifecycle for a product like this is in the 3-5 year range, and adding on a custom mechanical keyboard in a mass-market product like this is a tall order.

Honestly I'm not put off by the $200 price tag. If you use one in person (like at a Micro Center here in the US), you'll feel it's a decent midrange mechanical keyboard. It won't compete on the high end (IMO $200+), but to strap that onto a decent low-end PC in a fanless design isn't cheap, even at the scales Raspberry Pi operates.

They have some margin, for sure, but that's also how they turn profit, which is especially useful since then went public.

At least they're still putting out products like this, that don't really have any industrial/commercial appeal, compared to specialized compute modules for individual customers[2].

[1] https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/meet-the-engineers-behind-r...

[2] https://www.cnx-software.com/2025/09/23/raspberry-pi-cm0-cas...