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Raspberry Pi Production Heats Up In UK Surpassing Chinese Production Soon

Posted by samzenpus on from the cranking-them-out dept.

hypnosec writes "The majority of $35 Raspberry Pi production was shifted to a factory in Wales from China and the Raspberry Pi Foundation has announced this week that the factory in Wales has produced its half millionth unit in just over six months. The weekly production has shot up to 40,000 units in the UK factory and that number is 'set to climb further.' The Foundation is optimistic about the Welsh factory and said there will be 'more Made in the U.K. Pis in the world than their Made in China cousins.' The Foundation didn't reveal anything else apart from this, but we already know it sold the millionth Pi back in January."

4 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Subsidised? by robpow · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So how come it can be done in the UK and still sold at the same price? Either there's a subsidy in place or the manufacturing cost is a negligible part of the selling price.

    1. Re:Subsidised? by gl4ss · · Score: 4, Insightful

      well.. that price is without vat, so the time I could buy it the price is 48 euros. they don't pay license fees for codecs(that's extra) and so on. and the production is probably fully automated. you might have worse luck sourcing the parts at their pricing though but I'm pretty sure the chip companies aren't doing this as a charity..

      once there's no manual labor involved then assembling them is pretty much the same regardless of where it happens if scale is big enough(that automation can be done).

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  2. Amazing! by whizbang77045 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Amazing! You make something available people actually want, and they buy it. No hard push advertising required!

  3. Re:You are just joking, right? by SB2020 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    This is pure misinformation, I have a RPi with an up to date OS and adequate power supply and it works just fine. I have used several keyboards and mice (wired, wireless) and never had a problem with USB.
    Ethernet has never dropped out - ever. The only real issues I've had are with SD card corruption when overclocking - taught me a bunch about repairing filesystems, data recovery and importance of backups.
    It's currently plugged into my TV running XBMC which it does adequately, it can be a bit sluggish but is still the best source I have for streaming HD content.
    I also use it for MAME and the the kids use it to play Minecraft which we've had fun programming in python using the API.
    Both me and the kids have learned more about Linux and general computing than we would have done without it, so I'd say they are meeting their goals for education even if 40yr old geeks weren't their intended audience.

    If it doesn't meet your needs, buy something more powerful/expensive but I'm pretty sure you may have to put some effort in to configure it for your needs, it doesn't sound like you have the mindset for that. Even my 8 year old now understands that there are limitations to a particular devices capabilities and accepts it rather than being a whiny brat like yourself.

    I'm quite happy with mine and intend to buy more for use as printserver for my RepRap, security cameras, greenhouse environmental control etc...