in the newsletter found Tom’s HardwareRaspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton announced that the company is working to clear customer backlogs and recover from poor sales, hinting at a shift of 1 million units per month starting this summer.
Upton disclosed in the preface to the newsletter that the first quarter of 2023 will be the company’s worst quarter since 2015, with shipments of 800,000 units (equivalent to a month’s sales at its peak).
Even so, the company forecasts that 600,000 units will be sold in May alone, and as high as 800,000 in June. By July, Raspberry Pi hopes to be able to sustain 1 million units per month “as necessary.”
Raspberry Pi inventory problems over?
Upton described the first two years of having to deal with shortages as “painful,” but declared those days are over and this year will be the best ever for Raspberry Pi single-board computers and modules.
He also blamed December 2022 on lower shipments in the first quarter of 2023, as the company has scaled back production to meet holiday demand.
“Thanks to Sony’s willingness to stockpile non-silicon elements in our bill of materials, we were able to rapidly convert this improved supply into finished products,” the newsletter reads.
Sony is responsible for making a lot of Raspberry Pi hardware.
Looking ahead, Upton shared predictions in a report interview YouTuber Jeff Geerling said shipments in the second quarter of 2023 should be around 2 million units — a figure similar to what the company expected before the pandemic hit the economy.
For the second half of 2023, Upton believes supply should be “unrestricted,” suggesting a way around factory and manufacturing constraints, although backlogs are expected to clear before that happens.
Finally, he spoke of the difficult decision he was forced to make as CEO of the company, proudly declaring: “I’m sorry we don’t have floating prices.”
Many of the company’s cheapest systems and components are easily available on the $10 budget, helping propel the company to success in educational and research institutions, or simply for those looking to play around with their favorite release version.
