It was designed in a bid to encourage more young people to get into computing – and now Raspberry Pi has just sold its 10 millionth computer.
Based in Pencoed , the company hoped that by putting cheap, programmable computers in the hands of the right young people, they would revive some of the sense of excitement about computing.
And after launching in 2012, the success of the Raspberry Pi has continued to grow from strength to strength – with astronaut Tim Peake even taking one of the computers up to the International Space Station.
November last year also saw the Raspberry Pi Zero launched – a £4 computer measuring just 65mm long and 30mm wide.
Raspberry Pi is a bare-bones computer that does everything your PC can do. It looks like a bare circuit board, but once you’ve plugged in a keyboard, mouse and screen (which could be your television), you’ve got a fully-fledged computer to surf the web, use spreadsheets and word processing.
Founder and CEO Eben Upton said: “We started it because of the collapse in people studying computer science. The skills in computer science are the skills everyone needs. They help you learn to think in a way that is useful even if you don’t go into computer programming.”
And looking back over the past four years, the former Cambridge student said there were three milestones that have stood out.
He said: “Firstly the day we launched on February 29, 2012, we got 100,000 orders. That was a wow moment, we felt a bit dazed. We thought: ‘Oh boy, we need to make 100,000 of these things’.
“Another big moment was deciding base production at Pencoed. That was really special because my mum’s side of the family are from Pontypool .
“It was a big decision because it was a business decision, not because we are patriotic. If we had done it for patriotic reasons it would have been an empty gesture. We made a business decision to be there and we have a great team.
“Our production in Pencoed can punch out computers at an incredible rate – between 10-20,000 a day. It used to produce all the Sony TVs for Western Europe.”
He added: “I am really interested in space and the final moment that jumps out at me was when British astronaut Tim Peake took a Raspberry Pi up to the International Space Station.”
The Raspberry Pi is a bare circuit board and customers have to supply their own power supply and screen. According to Mr Eben, this simple formula, and the simplicity and flexibility it offers, is the key to their success.
He said: “In the UK we have tradition of hacking and playing about with electronics and computers.
“Modern PCs are great and they’re powerful but you can’t take them apart. I think the reason for our success is we tapped into something that was already there.”
In the last four years the not-for-profit has grown to the stage that over 80% of its sales are exports. To celebrate the 10 millionth sale Matt Hancock, the Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, has invited Mr Upton to the Houses of Parliament to celebrate the success.
If you lay all their computers Raspberry Pi have made next to each other, they would reach from Pencoed to the middle of Germany.
Although they only weigh 31 grams, if you put all the Raspberry Pis sold together they would weigh 250 tonnes.
Recently the Raspberry Pi team said they were watching a video of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in Lagos Nigeria. When they looked closer they saw that all the kids were using a Raspberry Pi.
According to founder Eben Upton, the name is because most computer firms are named after fruit and there aren’t many left. He chose it because it is the ‘rudest’ fruit, as in ‘blowing a raspberry’.
http://www.walesonline.co.uk/business/raspberry-pi-now-sold-10m-11860856