In early March this year Raspberry Pi signed a deal with Sony to move a large part of the manufacturing process to the United Kingdom. This decision was based on high demand in the UK and Europe for the unit and the relative technical expertise of UK production processes.
“In June we scheduled 204 units per week. By July that had climbed to 10,000 units per week – this month we will achieve 38,000 output per week, and this is just the beginning,” said Gerald Kelly, the General Manager of Sony’s Pencoed plant.
Since the production process moved to UK manufacturing the numbers produced in the UK alone have risen to 40,000. This means in quantifiable terms the UK now produces more than the Chinese facility – impressive stuff. As a result shipments have now exceeded the 500,000 mark but with production ramping up so quickly 1 million units shipped is a landmark expected to be achieved in July.
“The future is about higher volumes and accessories such as a camera board. Current total forecast for Pi products indicate that 1,000,000 output will be achieved sometime in July this year.”
Despite all this extra production demand is still drastically higher than supply in many regions and countries. Consequently, you should expect demand to still be higher than available supplies until much later on this year when production picks up a lot more and surpasses that 1 million landmark.
Have you managed to grab a Raspberry Pi yet? What are your thoughts on it?
