sales date?

[richcole]

I have no idea how easy or hard shipping 10k or 20k units is going to be. One option though might to use Amazon.

http://www.amazonservices.com/content/f ... mazon.htm/

I've never used the service so I don't know how easy it is to use. Just a thought.

regards,

Richard.

[tipam]

Why not put a quick counter on the Raspberry_pi home page to indicate how many units people would buy if they were on sale now?  It could be as simple as entering your forum id/email (submitted only once), no of units they would buy followed by an OK button.  A counter would then update indicating an expected sale of units, say over a week.

[Thorn]

Only downside seems to be the reliance on Royal Mail. They've nicked my packages several times before, run by a bunch of lowbrow thieves!

[mp09aap]

I’m sure they will go on sale by February and will go within 12 hours, tbh can’t wait. There is one thing however I am thinking. When you get them from the manufacture will they be individually boxed and have a case as I can see capacitors and other components easily getting damage during packaging and transit. also how many people have you got ready to do the packaging. as if you have a team of 3 people able between them to package 1 a minute making over an 8 hour day possible to package around 480 per day it will take you around 20 days to package and post the 10000 units that will sell easily in a day. I’m sure if supply was then you could easily sell a few million units this year.

[iwant5please]

Why don't you guys use ebay to distribute the boards? That way your server would not overload and anyone can order safely by using either paypal or their credit card. Using ebay, anyone can input the amount of board they want to buy and combined shipping would be easier. Also ebay's tools would let you guys calculate shipping more efficiently and you would be able to print shipping labels right from ebay. I think ebay would be the best way to sell your product to the whole world. Thanks!

iwant5please

[foo]

There's a reason many people call it "feeBay".  At these tight margins, I think going through additional routes that take cuts of the sale would hurt a lot.

[meltwater]

The units aren't even on sale yet so probably best wait and see what the foundation have put in place.  From the bits I've read, they have proper distribution straight out the foundry so it is properly covered for packaging and shipping (which would be far more effective anyway).

Later who knows, since they are keen to get additional manufacturers to build it independently (which would be amazing, since they can produce as many as they wish to) and they have said they will supply to distributors.  It will just take time, and working capital, both of which will come with some patience.

Hopefully the quotes which they get back from the additional foundry's will be good enough that the foundation will have several places to produce them through, and cash flow sufficient enough to keep them running when things get going.  Fingers crossed they are all good and the production capacity will be several times what they've said so far (with extra comfort that if one has a problem another is able to continue).

But if there are delays, then be patient since there is always a good reason (like the sd card slot, the red-wire beta pcb mod), I have every faith that the units will come as quickly as they able to make them.

[Clair]

Maybe you could give the subscribers here a heads up and let us get in and out the door  with a limit of ONE before you fling those doors wide for the huddled masses!?

Just a thought.

[lewmur]

I just created an account in the Pi Shop.  Hope this counts in the "first come, first served".

[froshy]

lewmur said:


I just created an account in the Pi Shop.  Hope this counts in the "first come, first served".



Wer is Pi shop ? I am looking for PI shop and not found.

[bmoffitt]

As someone with some experience in:

1.) Marketing, especially hi-tech gadgets,

2.) Turning hi-tech gadgets into useful, usable products, and

3.) The education market, I'd like to make a few comments.

1.) Marketing: everybody lies. Many folks who say they want one won't buy one, but, if the product offers a good price/performance ratio, some people who say they'll buy one will actually buy 100. Or 1,000. Or 1,000,000. Expect your best estimate of market demand to be off by 1 to 3 orders of magnitude. In which direction, I can't say.

2.) If the Pi delivers what it promises, folks like me will snap them up to turn them into little embedded servers to do all kinds of things. I'd buy 5 right now (and will as soon as they're available); if they work as I hope, I'll start buying them 100 at a time.

3.) As someone commented, selling to "the education market" is a long sell - you can sell millions of units, but it will take many months, stretching into years to get any momentum. And you'll have to have demand "pulling" from the teaching community, which takes time and energy to create.

I'm going to get some and just give them to teachers and students I know to stimulate demand here in Sili Valley.

"What do I do with it?" they'll ask

"It's a $25 computer with USB and HDMI output, use it to prop up a table leg for all I care," I'll respond. (actually, I'll probably get the Ethernet model)

Of course, they won't... Most of them won't do anything interesting with it, but, if we get it into enough hands, some will. As it starts to drive papers and presentations at academic conferences, etc., demand will build for ones and twos, then tens and twenties, then thousands.

The key, of course, is getting your manufacturing up to volume (in a somewhat orderly way) so you can drive down the cost and keep "the machine" going on the cash it generates (this is true whether you're trying to create cash flow for profit or to fund additional charitable activities). Remember: cash flow is king (whether for-profit or not-for-profit).

I would suggest putting in parts orders for the second build of 100,000 before you get the first 10,000 built. I think you'll go through your first production run very quickly - it will get interesting in the second build and as you get a sense for the product mix (how many of each model you sell).

I can only wish you the best of luck. I'll be here with my Visa card when the first production models are available. Really!

[Jongoleur]

froshy said:


lewmur said:


I just created an account in the Pi Shop.  Hope this counts in the "first come, first served".


Wer is Pi shop ? I am looking for PI shop and not found.



Ye Olde Pi Shoppe:  http://www.raspberrypi.com/

At present the only things on sale are "keyboard stickers" priced mainly as donations with a "thank you" gift, but sign up for an account to be ready when the time comes....

[TommyZee]

b muffitt wonderful post, thank you for that information. I also have my visa in hand ^|^

[CookieMonster]

froshy said:


Wer is Pi shop ? I am looking for PI shop and not found.


At the top of the page, in the black navigation bar area look between "FAQs" and "Forum".

[BuzzCola]

Will there be a max order quantity (hopefully one person)? If not I can see speculators buying 10's or 20's at a time in the hope of making a profit on Ebay when they sell out. That would be a shame

[JamieDG]

Like many I gladly await the first batch sale of 10,000 R-Pi's.

Hope I am wrong but when they finally go on sale I see major online server overload/outage and many people being disappointed. I have seen this recently in the UK with some of the biggest IT suppliers underestimating the sales stampede.

One way to limit this is to initially allow only one unit to each forum member. We currently have nearly 7000 forum members, each member would be allowed an email offer to buy one, the offer would last 24Hrs before being withdrawn. This would give every forum member from every time zone a fair even chance with the global sale starting 24hrs later.

As said, hope I am wrong but prey you at least limit sales to one per customer.

[jamesh]

This questions has been asked and answered at least a million, if not more, times.

First batch is limited to one per address/person, large batches may be available middle of the year.

You email suggestions would be completely impossible to implement - 7000 emails in one go? Ouch.

Since we have no idea of the initial demand, we cannot predict whether the sales server will die in a big heap or not.

[joecarst]

JamieDG said:


As said, hope I am wrong but prey you at least limit sales to one per customer.


They have stated before that they will, at the beginning, enforce a limit somehow, whether based on name, email, credit card, or shipping address.  If I find where I saw that I will try to link to it.

EDIT:  Here it is.

[BuzzCola]

JamesH said:


This questions has been asked and answered at least a million, if not more, times.


But still not in FAQs?

[jamesh]

BuzzCola said:


JamesH said:


This questions has been asked and answered at least a million, if not more, times.


But still not in FAQs?


But in a lot of recent forums posts. Try the forum search.

I'll try and get it put in the FAQ's.

[piglet]

JamesH said:


we cannot predict whether the sales server will die in a big heap or not.


Unless you've got a rather hefty infrastructure behind it, it'd be surprised if it didn't grind to a halt pretty quickly.

Let's hope BigCommerce have put you on a nice meaty server farm.

[jamesh]

piglet said:


JamesH said:


we cannot predict whether the sales server will die in a big heap or not.


Unless you"ve got a rather hefty infrastructure behind it, it"d be surprised if it didn"t grind to a halt pretty quickly.

Let"s hope BigCommerce have put you on a nice meaty server farm.


Well, it depends on demand. Lots of people here predict big sales, but are they right?

[simonIOW]

Hopefully they are right about the sales demand, as that will increase production, so we're more likely to get one, and have ongoing support; I know I've been showing off this device to anyone unfortunate enough to walk near my office...

BTW, I hope I'm not the only person to have ensured they have spare SD cards, USB power supplies, distros, HDMI cables etc ready for when they do launch...

[netomx]

I am ready Have a 4GB SD ready, 1 HDMI cable, and a 12V voltage

[samcrawford]

netomx said:


I am ready Have a 4GB SD ready, 1 HDMI cable, and a 12V voltage


Then you've got 7V too many!