The $25 Model A Raspberry Pi (http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/3215) has gone on sale in Asia, following its launch in Europe last month (http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/04/25-model-a-raspberry-pi-on-sale-in-europe/) – suggesting a U.S. landing can't be too far off for the most affordable of the Pi Foundation's two low-cost microcomputers. One of the Foundation's distributors, RS Components, said today (http://mrem.bernama.com/viewsm.php?idm=20877) it is now shipping the Model A Pi in Asia.
Speaking to TechCrunch at the end of last month, Raspberry Pi founder, Eben Upton, said the not-for-profit organisation had completed the paperwork required to kick off global sales of the Model A, adding that it and "hope[d] to be able to enable these within the next couple of weeks".
The $25 Model A is the most affordable Pi in the Foundation's microcomputing arsenal, a full ten dollars cheaper than the original Model B. To get the price down, the unit has half the RAM (256MB) of the second revision Model B (http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/15/raspberry-pi-mini-computer-now-shipping-with-ram-upgraded-to-512mb-from-256mb-same-tiny-35-price-tag/), only one USB port and no Ethernet connection. It also consumes less power, making it suitable for remote battery-powered applications — although it can still support a 'home media centre' use-case too, according to the Foundation.
Asked about early sales of the Model A Pi at the end of February, Upton said: "Early indications are that we've been selling between 5,000 and 10,000 units per week across the two distributors: so, roughly a quarter of the sales rate of Model Bs."
"It will be interesting to see whether these sales have displaced Model B sales, or have grown the market," he added.
In January, Raspberry Pi passed the one million Model B sales (http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/12/one-million-raspberry-pi-have-been-sold-since-launch/) mark — a far cry from the founders' original estimates of a few thousand units. The Pi was conceived as a tool to get kids learning to code (http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/14/raspberry-pi-the-small-computer-with-the-big-ambition-to-get-kids-coding-again/) – but has also proved popular with big kids who like to tinker (http://techcrunch.com/2013/03/20/the-raspberry-pi-dynamic-headlight-can-tell-you-how-fast-youre-cycling/). And with Google (http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/29/google-giving-grant-worth-525000-to-fund-free-raspberry-pi-for-15000-u-k-schoolkids/).
As well as being used for powering DIY gadgets, the Pi has had plenty of software ported over to it — including classic first-person shooter Quake (http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/29/video-raspberry-pi-25-computer-running-quake-iii/), block-building community game Minecraft (http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/11/minecraft-pi-edition-brings-mojangs-world-building-game-to-the-raspberry-pi-for-free/) – and for those who really want to relive the old days of computing: a DOS (PC) emulator (http://raspberry-pi.dcemu.co.uk/rpix86-v0-03-released-dos-pc-emulator-for-raspberry-pi-released-539652.html), rpix86 (shown below running a benchmark):
Via: TechCrunch