Liam Tung
| October 21, 2021
| Topic: Hardware
The global chip crisis is shining a light on smartphones’ big sustainability problem
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The British maker of the Raspberry Pi computer has raised the price of its 2GB RAM Raspberry Pi 4 by $10 due to the global semiconductor shortage.
The price hike, though temporary, is yet another example of how much the chip supply chain has changed since the pandemic struck. Raspberry Pi dropped the price of the 2GB Pi 4 by $10 in February 2020 to $35, but as of today it’s back to $45.
“Unfortunately, cost increases caused by the current shortage mean that this product is not currently economically viable at this reduced price point. We are therefore moving it back to $45 on a temporary basis,” writes Raspberry Pi Ltd CEO Eben Upton, noting that in the entire history of Raspberry Pi, it had never – until now – had to increase the price of a product.
SEE: Hunker down: The chip shortage and higher prices are set to linger for a while
Raspberry Pi, of course, isn’t alone. Automakers can’t shift cars because they lack key chips, while gaming fans have found it difficult to buy Sony’s Play Station 5 and Microsoft’s Xbox Series X consoles.
The supply shortage has not surprisingly also restricted production at Raspberry Pi. Upton says it will only make seven million units in 2021 – almost exactly the number it made in 2020, which was also its best year to date, in part due to higher sales during the first wave of pandemic lockdowns.
This year’s flat growth bucks its history of otherwise consistently increasing production at a Sony factory in the UK, which has assembled the Pi since 2012. The 2020 lockdown also caused problems for engineers building the 2020 Raspberry Pi 400.
Upton said products in short supply this year included the Raspberry Pi Zero and the 2GB variant of Raspberry Pi 4. So, despite increased demand, a shortage of these products put a cap on production numbers.
In 2022, Upton expects the supply challenges to fall most heavily on older products with chips built on older 40nm silicon. These products include the Compute Module 3, Compute Module 3+, and Raspberry Pi 3B, and Raspberry Pi 3B+ – essentially everything that isn’t a Raspberry Pi 4, Raspberry Pi 400, or Compute Module 4, which use 28nm silicon.
1GB Pi 4 returns for industrial customers
Due to the 2GB Pi 4 price rise, Raspberry Pi is also bringing back the 1GB Pi 4 for $35. It cancelled the 1GB variant when it cut the price of the 2GB variant. The return of the 1GB variant is to support industrial customers that use the 2GB variant in their products, according to Upton.
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Liam Tung
| October 21, 2021
| Topic: Hardware