The Raspberry Pi Foundation has finally put outan official starter kit for its low cost microcomputer ― offering what it dubs an“unashamedly premium” bundle for theRaspberry Pi 3 Model B, complete with optical mouse and keyboard in a very Apple-looking shade of white, plusall the cables you need to getup and running. The only thing missing is a screen.
The official Pi starter kit is available to order online in the U.K. from the Foundation’s distributors element14 and RS Components , priced at 99 (+VAT). While sales are slated toopen upto markets in the rest of the world“over the next few weeks”.
It’s something of a full revolution for the Foundation which conceived the original Pi with the intention of inspiring schoolkids to learn programming the hard way ― i.e. by trial and error and messing around with wires and cables, rather than being handedan ‘it just works box of bits’ to plug and play.
Four and a half years later, with more than 10 million of its single board Pi microcomputers now sold, the Foundation evidently feels it’s time to put a cherry on top of the project with its own shiny white starter kit. And fair play to them.In February last year the Pi had racked up5 million unit sales. But the expansion of the range to the $5 price-point withPi Zerolast November has clearly helped accelerate demand.
The project has also scaled wildly beyond the Foundation’soriginal goals, withmany a Pi findingits way into the hands of a crafty maker or clever startup, not justaspiring student coders. So the market for Pi will surely accommodate a premium bundle likely toappeal togizmo loversin the Western world, while continuing tosupport expanding access to computing in developing markets via the Foundation’smost affordable Pis.
The Foundation isby no means the first to offer a Pi starter kit. Indeed, the lack of an official kit provided a window of opportunity for third partiesto put together Pi bundles of their own, such as London based startup Kano which offers a bundle aimed at kids that includes not just hardware bits but its own software skinrunning atop the Pi’s OS with gamified elements. So while the arrival of an official kit may now squeeze out some players, there’s likely to continue to be room for a range of specializedstarter kits targeting different niches.
The full list of items included in the official Pi starter kit is as follows:
A Raspberry Pi 3 Model B An 8GB NOOBS SD card An official case An official 2.5A multi-region power supply An official 1m HDMI cable An optical mouse and a keyboard with high-quality scissor-switch action A copy of Adventures in Raspberry Pi Foundation Edition