Failure to Launch
Five and a half hours ago, the
Raspberry
Pi folks made their Big Announcement: they were shifting to
licensed manufacture. Two companies, Premier Farnell and RS
Components, were supposedly taking preorders. If you'd been
camping out on www.raspberrypi.com, too bad - that was just
a decoy.
RS published a press release claiming worldwide availability. Unfortunately, it seems no one told Allied Electronics, leaving the U.S./Canada market empty-handed. Similarly, Farnell's U.S. distributor, Newark, didn't seem to know anything about it either. That's since been rectified - except they claim to be shipping directly from the U.K., negating their usefulness, and contradicting RasPi's announcement. Because of this, there's a $20 handling fee on a $35 product. Ouch.
Unlike Farnell, RS isn't taking preorders, but they'll let you "express interest," which interested people didn't do because @Raspberry_Pi tweeted that if you saw that page, you were in the wrong place. They later retracted that, but now it's looking like they sort of got it right the first time. Yes, you're still stuck "expressing interest," but not on the U.K. site if you're in the U.S. Confused yet? Good!
Here's where things stand right now:
If you want Farnell, don't look for Farnell; go here instead:
http://www.newark.com/raspberry-pi/raspbrry-pcba/dp/83T1943
If you want RS, don't look for RS; go here instead:
http://www.designspark.com/content/raspberry-pi-registration-page
Someone tweeted that RS wants $15 above the advertised price, but that's still better than $20.
I believe the product is real, but today it sure looks like the Brits are perpetrating a massive hoax on the New World. :-(
Update: Searches on Allied now return a static page:
http://www.alliedelec.com/images/products/mkt/lp/1203/raspberry_pi.aspx
RS published a press release claiming worldwide availability. Unfortunately, it seems no one told Allied Electronics, leaving the U.S./Canada market empty-handed. Similarly, Farnell's U.S. distributor, Newark, didn't seem to know anything about it either. That's since been rectified - except they claim to be shipping directly from the U.K., negating their usefulness, and contradicting RasPi's announcement. Because of this, there's a $20 handling fee on a $35 product. Ouch.
Unlike Farnell, RS isn't taking preorders, but they'll let you "express interest," which interested people didn't do because @Raspberry_Pi tweeted that if you saw that page, you were in the wrong place. They later retracted that, but now it's looking like they sort of got it right the first time. Yes, you're still stuck "expressing interest," but not on the U.K. site if you're in the U.S. Confused yet? Good!
Here's where things stand right now:
If you want Farnell, don't look for Farnell; go here instead:
http://www.newark.com/raspberry-pi/raspbrry-pcba/dp/83T1943
If you want RS, don't look for RS; go here instead:
http://www.designspark.com/content/raspberry-pi-registration-page
Someone tweeted that RS wants $15 above the advertised price, but that's still better than $20.
I believe the product is real, but today it sure looks like the Brits are perpetrating a massive hoax on the New World. :-(
Update: Searches on Allied now return a static page:
http://www.alliedelec.com/images/products/mkt/lp/1203/raspberry_pi.aspx