When they were that cheap, I would grab my one on every trip to Microcenter, just because I'd probably find a use for it, and if I didn't, I knew someone else would want it. Fun times.
To be fair, you're comparing a Pi Zero which I can still walk into Micro Center and buy for $10 today to a 16GB Pi 5, where the insane 3× price hike is almost entirely due to the RAM: I can buy an 8GB Pi 5 for $175, less than half the price of the 16GB model, again quoting in stock prices at my nearest Micro Center.
For reference, the cheapest 16GB LPDDR4 (not 4X as used in the Pi 5) DIMM in stock is more than $150, which is about what I paid for the 64GB of DDR4 in my desktop a couple years ago.
Zero at $5 was never profitable. I think it was reported that they consulted Eric Schmidt and followed his advice to sell the core hardware at loss and recoup from accessories and bundle sales, which didn't suit their business, but did it anyway. This was why it was limited to 1 per customer and also because Pi Zero and Pico models have a more overpriced/appropriately-priced "WH" variants with no purchase limits.
> RPi is horrible value now you can get so much more from a lot of other boards it's not even a comparison now.
They didn't really exist before. And software support is still best on RPi. But they did really lose the plot because you could buy a whole x86 mini PC (new) for less and they're much better (unless you need GPIO).
Sure, today everything works... but take a board from 10 years ago and try to find a current software (linux distro or whatever) for that. For a RPi you can, but good luck with any other board.
The only exceptions are the mini PCs on x86 architecture (intel nuc, and similar chinese alternatives, but the prices of those are even worse than on RPis now)
When they were that cheap, I would grab my one on every trip to Microcenter, just because I'd probably find a use for it, and if I didn't, I knew someone else would want it. Fun times.
I miss them selling for $3.14 on Pi day.
These days we'd be lucky to see certain models discounted to $314.
To be fair, you're comparing a Pi Zero which I can still walk into Micro Center and buy for $10 today to a 16GB Pi 5, where the insane 3× price hike is almost entirely due to the RAM: I can buy an 8GB Pi 5 for $175, less than half the price of the 16GB model, again quoting in stock prices at my nearest Micro Center.
For reference, the cheapest 16GB LPDDR4 (not 4X as used in the Pi 5) DIMM in stock is more than $150, which is about what I paid for the 64GB of DDR4 in my desktop a couple years ago.
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same! it was like buying an extra roll of paper towels
I still do this of they have them in stock. A $15 Zero 2W will still be handy
Zero at $5 was never profitable. I think it was reported that they consulted Eric Schmidt and followed his advice to sell the core hardware at loss and recoup from accessories and bundle sales, which didn't suit their business, but did it anyway. This was why it was limited to 1 per customer and also because Pi Zero and Pico models have a more overpriced/appropriately-priced "WH" variants with no purchase limits.
I wonder if he uses this model for his current killer drone business.
To be fair to them that was over ten years ago, and prices of everything have risen significantly in that time.
Yeah, the launch was nearly 15 years ago (Feb 2012) - more than 1/7th of a century. It’d be in 9th or 10th grade by now.
>more than a 1/7th of a century
bit of an over-wrouught unit of time, ha
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Sold out? Or catered towards market demands?
They changed from an education-focused non-profit to a for-profit entity and then IPO'd. They sold out in the most literal sense.
That's what selling out is...
For reference, for those of you who prefer to learn things via ska punk music from the 90s...
https://youtu.be/AEKbFMvkLIc
Tomato. Tomahto.
Personally the pricing changes are absurd even with inflation and memory prices in mind.
RPi is horrible value now you can get so much more from a lot of other boards it's not even a comparison now.
> RPi is horrible value now you can get so much more from a lot of other boards it's not even a comparison now.
They didn't really exist before. And software support is still best on RPi. But they did really lose the plot because you could buy a whole x86 mini PC (new) for less and they're much better (unless you need GPIO).
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The problem with other boards is software.
Sure, today everything works... but take a board from 10 years ago and try to find a current software (linux distro or whatever) for that. For a RPi you can, but good luck with any other board.
The only exceptions are the mini PCs on x86 architecture (intel nuc, and similar chinese alternatives, but the prices of those are even worse than on RPis now)