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Raspberry Pi Gets Its Own Brick-and-Mortar Retail Store (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the how-about-that dept.

The Raspberry Pi, believe it or not, now has its very own retail store. From a report: Located on the first floor of the Grand Arcade in Cambridge, U.K., the Raspberry Pi Store is open through the day, every day, and sells everything from Raspberry Pi microcomputers and accessories, to branded coffee mugs, soft toys, and more. [...] Despite its popularity -- more than 19 million Raspberry Pi units have been sold since 2012 -- the Raspberry Pi still feels a little niche to merit its own dedicated retail store. Indeed, most people who would be interested in building their own electronic gadgets from scratch are likely well-versed in the wonders of online retail. But conversely, that is likely the same reason why the Raspberry Pi Foundation wants its own space in the physical retail realm: it needs a new audience.

6 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. And much like the USB design... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    And much like the USB design of the Raspberry PI, there will be multiple entrances to the building which will then funnel all traffic through a single door.

    1. Re:And much like the USB design... by itsdapead · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And much like the USB design of the Raspberry PI, there will be multiple entrances to the building which will then funnel all traffic through a single door.

      Yes, they should have bought the former department store next door with 50 times the floor space and 8 independent doors. Except that would have cost a lot more and rendered the whole project financially impossible.

      The Pi has a USB bottleneck (and falls short to being totally open source) because they used a dirt-cheap, off-the-shelf system-on-a-chip in order to meet their prime requirement: its so cheap that you can happily mod it, let the kids play with it etc. without any drama if/when somebody lets the magic smoke out. Or just buy a new one for your next project rather than have to tear apart your last project to retrieve the expensive computer.

      It would be great if there were some ARM equivalent of generic x86 PC hardware - with proper USB, Ethernet, PCIe, M.2. SATA etc. and standardised firmware/drivers - but that's not what the Pi was intended to be, and is unlikely to cost $35 or less...

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    2. Re:And much like the USB design... by thereddaikon · · Score: 4, Interesting

      They joined the RISCV foundation last month. I would expect them to switch from ARM to RISCV in the next few years. The arch has enjoyed meteoric growth in the last few years from just a paper ISA to FPGAs and now real dedicated silicon. You can get 64bit multicore SoCs. At the rate they are going with the active work from their members it will be a viable commercial arch very soon. Debian even boots with X now.

    3. Re:And much like the USB design... by Jason+Levine · · Score: 4, Funny

      A USB entrance?

      *Tries opening the door by pushing. Door doesn't open. Tries opening the door by pulling. Door doesn't open. Tries opening the door by pushing. Door opens.*

      --
      My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
  2. Its in Cambridge by itsdapead · · Score: 3, Informative

    the Raspberry Pi still feels a little niche to merit its own dedicated retail store.

    Its in Cambridge.

    To translate that for viewers in the USA its like saying... well, come to think about it, its like saying "Its in Cambridge" (copycats!).

    It will have access to a slightly different customer demographic than your typical Radio Shack on a strip mall somewhere that doesn't have the students and professors from a top-tier university, the employees and families of ARM inc. and a dozen other tech companies passing by on their way back from the bookshop - is what I'm saying.

    People can add it to the tourist trail between the alma mater of Newton and Hawking and the pub where Clive Sinclair and Chris Curry had a punch-up.

    --
    In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  3. Right next door to the OLPC Store by kenh · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Despite its popularity -- more than 19 million Raspberry Pi units have been sold since 2012 -- the Raspberry Pi still feels a little niche to merit its own dedicated retail store.

    That is true, there are only two kinds of people in the world, those that own no Raspberry PIs, and those that own several dozen Pis - so that puts the maximal user base at well under 1 million world-wide. Now, conveniently, all those Raspberry Pi owners are clustered in high-density first-world cities, so this was an obvious next step for the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

    --
    Ken