New Raspberry Pi Zero sells out in just 24 hours

Raspberry Pi Zero
The new Raspberry Pi Zero

We definitely liked the look of the new super-cheap Raspberry Pi Zero when it launched earlier this week - and it seems we're not the only ones. All 20,000 of the initial batch of devices have been sold in the first day.

Supplies are also running low of the official MagPi magazine that includes a Pi Zero on the front cover of the most recent issue. Don't panic though, as the Raspberry Pi Foundation has said new units will be on the way soon.

"You'd think we'd be used to it by now, but we're always amazed by the level of interest in new Raspberry Pi products," Raspberry Pi Foundation founder Eben Upton told Wired. "Right now it appears that we've sold every individual Zero we made and most of the 10,000 MagPi issues with cover-mounted units."

Supply and demand

The Pi Zero sells for £4 in the UK and $5 in the States (that's roughly AU$7). That gets you a compact bare-bones computer system with a Broadcom BCM2835 1GHz CPU, 512MB of RAM, a microSD slot, a mini-HDMI port and two micro-USB sockets.

"We will continue to make Zeros for as long as you guys want them," wrote Liz Upton on the Raspberry Pi blog. "It looks like demand will continue to outstrip supply for a while if yesterday's rush is anything to go by, but we're doing our very best to keep channels open."

"We advise you not to buy from scalpers on eBay, because... karma," she added. Apparently the publishers of MagPi are looking into a second print run, so another way to get hold of the device would be to subscribe to the magazine for a few months.

David Nield
Freelance Contributor

Dave is a freelance tech journalist who has been writing about gadgets, apps and the web for more than two decades. Based out of Stockport, England, on TechRadar you'll find him covering news, features and reviews, particularly for phones, tablets and wearables. Working to ensure our breaking news coverage is the best in the business over weekends, David also has bylines at Gizmodo, T3, PopSci and a few other places besides, as well as being many years editing the likes of PC Explorer and The Hardware Handbook.