When they were that cheap, I would grab my one on every trip to Microcenter, just because I'd probably find a use for it, and if I didn't, I knew someone else would want it. Fun times.
To be fair, you're comparing a Pi Zero which I can still walk into Micro Center and buy for $10 today to a 16GB Pi 5, where the insane 3× price hike is almost entirely due to the RAM: I can buy an 8GB Pi 5 for $175, less than half the price of the 16GB model, again quoting in stock prices at my nearest Micro Center.
For reference, the cheapest 16GB LPDDR4 (not 4X as used in the Pi 5) DIMM in stock is more than $150, which is about what I paid for the 64GB of DDR4 in my desktop a couple years ago.
Yup. I think I also bought an 8gb Pi 4 for $50+ or similar a while back.
The price of a pico is what the zero used to be, and the 4gb/8gb 5 is $110 to $185 depending on ram when the 4 used to be I think $55 to $75 at the same ram.
I shouldn't be surprised because it's similar to/worse than the transition from DDR3 to DDR4, but I still was caught off guard to some degree.
Sure, but unless you're integrating the devices into a product to sell, an increase from $4 to $10 hurts a lot less than an increase from $80 to $200. I wouldn't change my mind about buying one or a few Pi Zeroes for hobby projects over $6/unit, but I may well consider a different platform over $120/unit.
Fortunately for me, I already have a stack of criminally underutilized Pi 3, 4, and 5 units on a shelf from a past (non-hobby) project. No 16GB, but multiple 8GB units, and 8GB is enough for most anything I can imagine wanting to do on a Pi.
Zero at $5 was never profitable. I think it was reported that they consulted Eric Schmidt and followed his advice to sell the core hardware at loss and recoup from accessories and bundle sales, which didn't suit their business, but did it anyway. This was why it was limited to 1 per customer and also because Pi Zero and Pico models have a more overpriced/appropriately-priced "WH" variants with no purchase limits.
> RPi is horrible value now you can get so much more from a lot of other boards it's not even a comparison now.
They didn't really exist before. And software support is still best on RPi. But they did really lose the plot because you could buy a whole x86 mini PC (new) for less and they're much better (unless you need GPIO).
This is something that a lot of people seem to forget. I remember a friend showing me a low-performance Linux-based devboard shortly before the release of the Raspberry Pi. It cost hundreds of dollars. On top of that, support for the board was worse than the support for most of the Linux devboards released after the Raspberry Pi (which often has poor support compared to the Raspberry Pi).
> unless you need GPIO
I'm not even sure how that is relevant in most use cases if cost is a factor. Microcontroller development boards are inexpensive and will hook up to the x86 mini PC via USB. If you're willing to pay a bit more, many Wi-Fi based options are available.
I wouldn't say they lost the plot as they really don't have much choice with the current inflated component prices. It's either increase the prices or discontinue the products.
Actually, mini PCs were cheaper before the prices went through the roof! A ~$250 CAD mini PC comes with everything included vs. everything being a separate "accessory" purchase. Power supply, case, cooling, SD card (or M.2 HAT + SSD, because the mini PC comes with an SSD).
It's happening. The powers that be are now deciding what kind and how much compute you may have. Enjoy your 4 GiB cloud terminal. You won't be able to own much more without a D-U-N-S number.
Sure, today everything works... but take a board from 10 years ago and try to find a current software (linux distro or whatever) for that. For a RPi you can, but good luck with any other board.
The only exceptions are the mini PCs on x86 architecture (intel nuc, and similar chinese alternatives, but the prices of those are even worse than on RPis now)
When they were that cheap, I would grab my one on every trip to Microcenter, just because I'd probably find a use for it, and if I didn't, I knew someone else would want it. Fun times.
I miss them selling for $3.14 on Pi day.
These days we'd be lucky to see certain models discounted to $314.
To be fair, you're comparing a Pi Zero which I can still walk into Micro Center and buy for $10 today to a 16GB Pi 5, where the insane 3× price hike is almost entirely due to the RAM: I can buy an 8GB Pi 5 for $175, less than half the price of the 16GB model, again quoting in stock prices at my nearest Micro Center.
For reference, the cheapest 16GB LPDDR4 (not 4X as used in the Pi 5) DIMM in stock is more than $150, which is about what I paid for the 64GB of DDR4 in my desktop a couple years ago.
Yup. I think I also bought an 8gb Pi 4 for $50+ or similar a while back.
The price of a pico is what the zero used to be, and the 4gb/8gb 5 is $110 to $185 depending on ram when the 4 used to be I think $55 to $75 at the same ram.
I shouldn't be surprised because it's similar to/worse than the transition from DDR3 to DDR4, but I still was caught off guard to some degree.
Sure, but unless you're integrating the devices into a product to sell, an increase from $4 to $10 hurts a lot less than an increase from $80 to $200. I wouldn't change my mind about buying one or a few Pi Zeroes for hobby projects over $6/unit, but I may well consider a different platform over $120/unit.
Fortunately for me, I already have a stack of criminally underutilized Pi 3, 4, and 5 units on a shelf from a past (non-hobby) project. No 16GB, but multiple 8GB units, and 8GB is enough for most anything I can imagine wanting to do on a Pi.
The Pi Zero 1.3 is $10, but it’s not in stock anywhere I can find.
same! it was like buying an extra roll of paper towels
I still do this of they have them in stock. A $15 Zero 2W will still be handy
Zero at $5 was never profitable. I think it was reported that they consulted Eric Schmidt and followed his advice to sell the core hardware at loss and recoup from accessories and bundle sales, which didn't suit their business, but did it anyway. This was why it was limited to 1 per customer and also because Pi Zero and Pico models have a more overpriced/appropriately-priced "WH" variants with no purchase limits.
I wonder if he uses this model for his current killer drone business.
To be fair to them that was over ten years ago, and prices of everything have risen significantly in that time.
Yeah, the launch was nearly 15 years ago (Feb 2012) - more than 1/7th of a century. It’d be in 9th or 10th grade by now.
>more than a 1/7th of a century
bit of an over-wrouught unit of time, ha
In that time, the Earth has travelled about 14 billion kilometers, or for the Americans, 126.7 billion football fields.
Sold out? Or catered towards market demands?
They changed from an education-focused non-profit to a for-profit entity and then IPO'd. They sold out in the most literal sense.
That's what selling out is...
For reference, for those of you who prefer to learn things via ska punk music from the 90s...
https://youtu.be/AEKbFMvkLIc
Tomato. Tomahto.
Personally the pricing changes are absurd even with inflation and memory prices in mind.
RPi is horrible value now you can get so much more from a lot of other boards it's not even a comparison now.
> RPi is horrible value now you can get so much more from a lot of other boards it's not even a comparison now.
They didn't really exist before. And software support is still best on RPi. But they did really lose the plot because you could buy a whole x86 mini PC (new) for less and they're much better (unless you need GPIO).
> They didn't really exist before.
This is something that a lot of people seem to forget. I remember a friend showing me a low-performance Linux-based devboard shortly before the release of the Raspberry Pi. It cost hundreds of dollars. On top of that, support for the board was worse than the support for most of the Linux devboards released after the Raspberry Pi (which often has poor support compared to the Raspberry Pi).
> unless you need GPIO
I'm not even sure how that is relevant in most use cases if cost is a factor. Microcontroller development boards are inexpensive and will hook up to the x86 mini PC via USB. If you're willing to pay a bit more, many Wi-Fi based options are available.
> I'm not even sure how that is relevant in most use cases if cost is a factor.
Totally agreed. Microcontrollers do GPIO better than a RPi ever did. An ESP32 or Raspberry Pi Pico can handle so much on their own.
I wouldn't say they lost the plot as they really don't have much choice with the current inflated component prices. It's either increase the prices or discontinue the products.
Actually, mini PCs were cheaper before the prices went through the roof! A ~$250 CAD mini PC comes with everything included vs. everything being a separate "accessory" purchase. Power supply, case, cooling, SD card (or M.2 HAT + SSD, because the mini PC comes with an SSD).
Or just prevent people from purchasing at all which is now happening with higher-end compute:
https://www.tomshardware.com/desktops/mini-pcs/amazon-closes...
It's happening. The powers that be are now deciding what kind and how much compute you may have. Enjoy your 4 GiB cloud terminal. You won't be able to own much more without a D-U-N-S number.
The problem with other boards is software.
Sure, today everything works... but take a board from 10 years ago and try to find a current software (linux distro or whatever) for that. For a RPi you can, but good luck with any other board.
The only exceptions are the mini PCs on x86 architecture (intel nuc, and similar chinese alternatives, but the prices of those are even worse than on RPis now)