Further possible delays to the Pi

Thing that worries me is that if the lead time is 135 (or even 166) days then that means a teacher wanting to order for a class here in the UK likely won't get an order received until July, which is at the end of the school term. I can't see teachers spending time during the school holidays either creating content or documentation, which was *supposed* to be the point of getting it out early to allow hobbyists to develop materials and content, but now the delays are so severe, I think this could in reality not really get adopted in schools until the next term starting in 2013, if ever.

The whole point of the pi was to get kids programming and interested in computers as a device and not just something you facebook or messenger on, something I completely agree with. However, from what I can see, if people are only just being made aware of this, then having to tackle school red tape to procure budget, I think any use in schools could easily be pushed to a year later.

This then knocks on to sustaining interest, keeping people engaged and building a groundswell of opinion, which I think the foundation did a brilliant job of until a couple of weeks ago. You can see the initial enthusiam beginning to wane even now on the Raspi offical website and here, as people become aware of the fact that this little marvel machine may end up being in their hands mid summer at the earliest so find something else to do, in this attention span short society.

I don't think it is any bad thing completely, as people may have become more aware of other options such as Arduino (not a direct competitor, but still something you can fiddle with) but I fear that as the old saying goes, ' You can only made a first impression once'. I really hope I am wrong, sincerely I do, but I think that it is very close to the boat sailing on this being the rescuer of UK IT teaching. Will it be bought by tons of people wanting a brilliant, cheap, versatile computer - Yes, wholeheartedly. Will it be thought of in the same way as the BBC micro / Spectrum of the 80's ? - not so sure now.

Please tell me i'm just being negative and that I just need some coffee ? :-)

Thing that worries me is that if the lead time is 135 (or even 166) days then that means a teacher wanting to order for a class here in the UK likely won't get an order received until July, which is at the end of the school term. I can't see teachers spending time during the school holidays either creating content or documentation, which was *supposed* to be the point of getting it out early to allow hobbyists to develop materials and content, but now the delays are so severe, I think this could in reality not really get adopted in schools until the next term starting in 2013, if ever.

The whole point of the pi was to get kids programming and interested in computers as a device and not just something you facebook or messenger on, something I completely agree with. However, from what I can see, if people are only just being made aware of this, then having to tackle school red tape to procure budget, I think any use in schools could easily be pushed to a year later.

This then knocks on to sustaining interest, keeping people engaged and building a groundswell of opinion, which I think the foundation did a brilliant job of until a couple of weeks ago. You can see the initial enthusiam beginning to wane even now on the Raspi offical website and here, as people become aware of the fact that this little marvel machine may end up being in their hands mid summer at the earliest so find something else to do, in this attention span short society.

I don't think it is any bad thing completely, as people may have become more aware of other options such as Arduino (not a direct competitor, but still something you can fiddle with) but I fear that as the old saying goes, ' You can only made a first impression once'. I really hope I am wrong, sincerely I do, but I think that it is very close to the boat sailing on this being the rescuer of UK IT teaching. Will it be bought by tons of people wanting a brilliant, cheap, versatile computer - Yes, wholeheartedly. Will it be thought of in the same way as the BBC micro / Spectrum of the 80's ? - not so sure now.

Please tell me i'm just being negative and that I just need some coffee ? :-)

Steve,

    All so true. We've seen many tech gadgets from portable gaming systems to tablets and such that have been built up in the media through advertising and word of mouth. I understand that the Foundation is a non-profit but as you said enthusiasm is waning and even diehard people like me that have been following the RPi for years is less than excited these days. Even as we see that RS and Farnell are trying to get a grip on orders and pricing, they still show that they don't have a grip on the distribution of their future stock.

    On a scale of 1 to 10, I'm about a 4 these days on my view of the future of the RPi, where I was a 10+ on 28 Feb.

Steve - you're just being negative.  You need some coffee.

I've had some more coffee, and even a Mars chocolate roll. Things are looking slightly better, but not much More coffee probably in order.

I think i'm a bit higher on the 1-10 scale than Kevin, but not anywhere near where I was on 28/29 Feb.

I guess only time will tell, but I sincerely hope I'm wrong.