Lately I’ve been seeing and hearing lots of things which I think suggest the pending release of a new Raspberry Pi model. Add to this some educated guesses, time since the last Pi was released, Christmas release timing and the community’s calls for more features – you can almost smell the new boards being made!
Now this is all guesswork at this point. I’m not one of the types in the ‘inner circle’ of the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s friends that get to see new releases prior to public announcement, so instead I resort to assumptions and speculation!
Let’s look at the evidence for what I believe to be a new release coming at the end of this month:
New Raspberry Pi teasers
All great products have release teasers…
MagPi teasers
The MagPi is now the official Raspberry Pi magazine, and what better way to release the news of a new Pi than in the official mag?
Check out this tweet. I have a feeling this isn’t just free stickers or a really cool Christmas project. They’ve used capital letters and everything…this is much bigger…
TWO DAYS TO GO. We're bursting at the seams with excitement pic.twitter.com/EjQB5qQ7ha
— The MagPi (@TheMagP1) November 24, 2015
@Raspberry_Pi tweets
Related to the MagPi teasers, the Raspberry Pi Foundation’s very own Twitter account is supporting my theory even more with these tweets:
— Raspberry Pi (@Raspberry_Pi) November 23, 2015
What can POSSIBLY be happening? WJDK. (Well, we do, but we don’t want to ruin the surprise.) https://t.co/Qp3t9QvX40
— Raspberry Pi (@Raspberry_Pi) November 24, 2015
@ThePiHut tweets
Not to mention this reply from Raspberry Pi inner circle store The Pi Hut…even stating their ‘inner circleness’ as well. They’re always well stocked on day 1 of any new Pi release, so would likely have the new Raspberry Pi ready to ship by now:
@Raspberry_Pi @TheMagP1 inner circle FTW
— The Pi Hut (@ThePiHut) November 24, 2015
“Inner Circle” members
There’s a select number of bloggers and YouTubers that usually get early access to new Raspberry Pi models. I’m not one of those people (perhaps I’m a bit too ‘average’?) but I do follow the people that are…
RasPi.TV
I noticed recently that Alex Eames had ‘popped in’ to Pi Towers…I wonder why, I doubt just about this book:
I had a sneak-preview of this on Wednesday when I called in at Pi Towers. It's 200 pages of awesome! https://t.co/OFFtWjkeYm
— RasPi.TV (@RasPiTV) November 20, 2015
The Raspberry Pi Guy
King of Raspberry Pi YouTube videos, looks like he’s going to be busy over the next couple of days…perhaps shooting a new device?
Darn I am going to be rather busy over the next couple of days!
— The Raspberry Pi Guy (@RaspberryPiGuy1) November 23, 2015
The Pi Hut
Another tweet from the Pi Hut – I wonder why they’re so busy? A new stock item to work on perhaps:
It's just dawned on me quite how much is going on here at PiHut towers over the next few weeks. Madness I say! Madness!
— The Pi Hut (@ThePiHut) November 17, 2015
Keeping hardware competitive
Another reason to expect another Pi to hit the shelves is the ever changing needs and wants of users. My theory here is based on 3 potential hardware changes the RPi Foundation might want to change/add to keep up with other devices:
WiFi/IoT
Take a look at every new popular development board being released at the moment and they consistently have something in common – on-board WiFi.
We’re living in an IoT world – everything from your cat flap to your trouser press is connected to your home network, so having WiFi built in to these boards is something now expected as standard.
I even compared search trends to see if “IoT” was on the up compared to “Raspberry Pi”. They’re growing at a similar rate:
Look – really vague meaningless data to support my theory!
Yes you can add a WiFi adapter to your Pi, and they even gave you 2 more USB ports on the latest Pi2 to do this with. However, I regularly have issues with WiFi on the Pi. From dropped connections to iffy speeds – maybe on-board WiFi is the answer? I’m not alone, the forums are packed with WiFi issue posts.
Most new devices come with on-board WiFi…could the Pi be following suit?
Ethernet Speed
More of a community request than a current need, Ethernet speeds have been discussed on forums over and over again. Supposedly the Pi needs Gigabit Ethernet, according to many users.
Could the Foundation be listening to these requests? Can a new Raspberry Pi accommodate Gigabit Ethernet or is there a hardware limitation? Maybe we’ll find out soon…
Gigabit or bust – people want faster wired internet speeds from their Pis
Size
Another common characteristic of modern IoT devices is their small form factor. People want tiny devices to fit in tiny places, hidden away with no ugly wires, doing their ‘IoT thing’ like magic.
Is the Pi small enough? Personally I think the A+ is, I don’t see why or how you would make it any smaller. Maybe there are ways of doing this though, which might increase the board’s popularity even more…
Release timings
Let’s take a look at recent release times for the various Pi models to see if we can take any indications from that:
- The B+ Raspberry Pi was released in June 2014
- 8 months later, the The Raspberry Pi 2 was released (February 2015)
It’s been 9 months since then, roughly the same timescale between the B+ and the Pi2. There was an A+ in between those, but I’m focussing on key ‘B’ models here.
All good tech companies have a regular release schedule, with most smartphone makers almost predictable in their hardware updates. Maybe the Foundation have more of a strategy these days?
I’m telling you…I’m on to something here!
It’s Christmas!
Lastly, it’s nearly Christmas – the shopping orgy of the world.
If you produced a number of products, which supported a charity and employed a large number of people – when would you choose to release a new affordable product that kids go mad for?
Yes – before December! After all, the RPi Foundation have to turn a profit to continue to operate…
Summary
Get your pocket money ready – there’s a new Pi coming! Or maybe not – I could be completely wrong. If it’s not this month, I’m still pretty sure we’ll see something new very soon.
What do you think? Is a new Raspberry Pi due for release? If there is a new Pi, what would you like to see on it? Add a comment below and share your thoughts.
If nothing else, it’s been fun pretending to be a detective this afternoon on my lunch break…
Until next time…
I guess we’ll find out!
…and we did 😀 https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero/
It would be commercial suicide to release a new machine this close to Christmas.
Any new machine needs Pi Towers to be chock full of sober people. It won’t happen when folks are away on Xmas breaks or recovering from excessive consumption of eau de vie (or other intoxicating liquors).
If they do it I’ll be off the forum until the end of January. The forum is bad enough with the Xmas newbies. The forum is bad enough with a new machine. Add the two together and it will be awful.
It would be commercial suicide …So this is the end of the Raspberry Pi Foundation? Pi Zero!
RPi Foundation closed by xmas 😉 I get what DL was saying though, and sounds like as this uses the same chip – all is well.
I don’t think it’ll be a new Pi. Releasing more than one per year is getting to be too much. People need stability. The jump from the 1 to the 2 was worth it but I can’t really see there’s much to be gained by going from a 2 to a 3 unless it’s got 64-bits, quad care and around 2GHz. That’s not going to happen for a reasonable price.
I’ll put my money on some sort of new hardware add-on. Like or hi-def screen or something. Maybe a Pi built into a screen.
Jimbo…does this mean you owe me money now? Or did we not shake on it? 😉 https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/raspberry-pi-zero/
I hope they dont change the HAT layout format, going to cause a lot of issues for add-on makers if they change it again.
I was never a fan of the HAT when it first came out, with add-on boards already doing the job, I didn’t get the need to go all official on it. Looks like this new Pi will at least attach to the top holes maybe?
The magazine has got something “Free” with it … but it’s unlikely to be a Raspberry Pi. I’m thinking T-shirt?
That’s a small T-shirt I see on the cover this morning 😀
Of course there is a new one going to release. Every time I but one they release a new one within a month. My last purchase was 2 weeks ago. It’s time.
Wow – spot on. Let me know next time you buy a Pi…
i’d be happy if they just moved all the ports to one side!
I couldn’t agree more, would be perfect for media centres!
Looks like the RSS feed is busted, can’t get any updates
http://feedvalidator.org/check.cgi?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.averagemanvsraspberrypi.com%2Ffeed
I think for some reason that might be the ‘£’ in the specific blog post title it calls out. Had some other issues with that. might not be, but that’s my best guess? I’ll have to do some digging – thanks for the heads up. There’s always the email option if that works for you.
I love the rumourmongering – errr sorry analysis , keeps us all on our toes :0)
Anyway what will we see tomorrow ???? Who knows – don’t think new Model C / 2B+ etc but possibly an accessory of some description , possibly exciting !!
It was very exciting!
So you were right after all! Its called Zero instead of A2+!
Hooray!
Richard, Congratulations on getting this spot on *and* staying calm under fire on the forum whilst all the ‘experts’ gave you endless flack.
Thanks – forums can be an ugly place for average folk…
Ha Ha great stuff – exhausted after today – gonna do some geeking with it tomorrow though !! PiZero For The Win !!
Well done sir – spot on
Hmmm.. I’m thinking you either built an average Time Machine or you were one of the “inside members”. You got that spot on, though this time it was a less features instead of more. However, I prefer it that way! Kudos for the timing 🙂
Thanks Nicholas. Oh and it was the time machine that did it…
Great news about the Pi Zero! unfortunately EVERYWHERE was sold out within an hour in My town, how about Average man giving one away?
I’d love to Steve, but I only managed to get one myself – and that was because someone picked me up a magazine and posted it to me. The world went a bit mad that day!
I saw your article last week before the big announcement. I remember hoping you were correct so well done on your impressive detective skills.
I was lucky enough to get a pi zero. Mainly because I made a point of looking if you were right 😀
Darren.
Glad to be of service haha 😀