The U.S. distributor of the $25 Raspberry Pi computer quickly exhausted its limited supply of the devices Monday.
Allied Electronics, which distributes the single-board computer in the United States, has posted a no mas notice at its website.
“Due to limited supply of the Raspberry Pi Model A, we are not offering preorders or backorders on the product at this time,” the posting said.
“The Raspberry Pi Model A will only be available for purchase when we have inventory on hand to fill the order,” it added.
When a new batch of Raspberry Pi’s hits the shelves, they usually sell briskly. So it’s no surprise that Allied sold out of the Model A so quickly. On the other hand, Allied reportedly only had few dozen units available, which contributed to the quick sell-through.
A spokesperson wasn’t immediately available from Allied to comment on the sell out and when more units would be available.
Since its introduction last year, Raspberry Pi—a low-priced, Linux-based single-board computer—has been runaway best seller, cracking the 1 million sales mark less than a year after its introduction.
The Model A is the lowest priced version of the computer. To get the price down to $25, Pi makers removed the computer’s Ethernet port and included only one USB port.
The absence of those features allows the Model A to consume about a third of the power of its big brother, the $35 Model B. That makes the A more suitable for solar-powered projects, as well as using the credit-card sized computer in data-gathering sensors at remote locations and in Wi-Fi repeaters.
A check of Allied’s Model B inventory reveled that unit sold out, too, but the company is apparently taking back orders for that version of the computer, although it’s warning buyers that wait times for a device may exceed six weeks.
Raspberry Pi makers began selling the Model A in Europe in February. U.S. sales have been bogged down in government red tape.
That hasn’t stopped some European outfits from hawking the Model A on eBay, according to Ars Technica. A German electronics shop is selling the unit for $38.50 on the online bazaar, and some British sellers are offering units online, too.
Ars also noted that Model B’s with 512MB of RAM are being sold on Amazon for $46.
European sales of the Model A appear to be lively. The first 20,000 units sold very quickly, Raspberry Pi Foundation head Eben Upton told TechCrunch.
Production is up to “a few thousand” a week, he added, and the units will dip in and out of availability until demand stabilizes.