size of first shipment

Interesting point you make coder 27. Is there anyone else around here that can shed any light on this ? I've tried to find more info, but nothnig seems clear about the 8,000 that were floating around somewhere between here and China ?

Or have I missed some news ?

Replying to myself, is that a bad habit ? Anyway, I've posed the question over in the RasPi forums. Any significant information and I will post here too.

That's if I don't get banned for asking a difficult question...

Steve,  

Thanks for asking on the RasPi forum.  Judging by the responses you've gotten so far,

anyone who knows isn't saying, and anyone who's saying doesn't know.

That's the way it's been on this issue for a long time, which certainly raises suspicions.

I also asked here: http://www.element14.com/community/docs/DOC-43262#comment-13325

It will be interesting to see if batch 2 has the EC mark silkscreened.

That would be a giveaway that the 8000 never existed.

One tidbit we heard yesterday is that RS sent out 2000 congratulatory emails in March

to those who were in the first batch.  But since only 700 units actually arrived in the first batch,

they have 1300 disappointed customers who now have to wait for the second batch. 

It isn't clear why they sent out 2000.  Maybe they forgot they would have to split the first batch,

or maybe they thought the first batch was more like 5000 units.  Mysteries abound.

Now I'm really confused.  Apparently yesterday Eben gave out some boards from the first batch to a school in Leeds -- http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17703852

Surely the entirety of the first batch (all 10k of them, not just 2k, nor only 700) was sold out to preorders, wasn't it?  How could Eben possibly have a bunch of them spare for the school?

Something's really bizarre about all this.  The numbers don't add up.

Morgaine,

  The numbers do add up.  See my original post in this thread.

The distributors were each allocated 700 of the first batch of 2000.

Eben kept about 150, 10% of which he handed out to the class,

and one of which ended up on eBay.

Morgaine,

  The numbers do add up.  See my original post in this thread.

The distributors were each allocated 700 of the first batch of 2000.

Eben kept about 150, 10% of which he handed out to the class,

and one of which ended up on eBay.

Well your numbers add up, but those aren't the numbers to which I'm referring.  I'm referring to the Foundation's numbers, which are that 10,000 had been made as batch #1, not merely ordered to be made.  And according to everything that's been said since the last week of February, those 10k were being assigned to preorders.  I guess that's not the case then.

more on the holdbacks...

In the November 2 article "How we're managing the first sales":

http://www.raspberrypi.org/archives/302

it says holdbacks would be "a couple of percent of the first few runs".

2% of 10000 would be 200, which is exactly how many they did hold back,

including the 50 failed boards.

note that they can't hold back any additional boards now, since all further

production is being done by the distributors, and shipped directly to them.

note also that the first 10k units were "emphatically not for programmers only",

but instead, just first come first served, "whoever you are".

This article also gives the first clue that the first batch would not be the full

10K units, although to this day the RPi forum is saying it was in their

pinned "status" article.

As you say coder27, not a lot of helpful replies so far, just a lot of speculation. I have now tried a more direct approach in the thread of asking if anyone from the foundation can comment.

I got a mail from Farnell a while back, saying that I was one of the lucky people that was going to be one of the first to get my hands on a Pi, with a delivery date slated in mid April. I presumed this meant I was in the first 10,000 orders, but if this has now been shrunk to 700, it is little surprise I haven't had a despatch e-mail.

As for the one on Ebay, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Being handed a device that people all across the world are clamouring for, and then deciding to sell it on ebay because ' I'm not really into computers'...I hope that isn't going to be a metaphor for the Pi, in that it'll end up being a hit with makers, engineers and tinkerers but won't make the slightest difference to UK computer education. When I was that age, i'd have given at *least* my right arm for one, and possibly one or two non essential internal organs.

@coder27: Aha!  That makes sense.  Well spotted that the 10k was only for "parts kits", and that they never actually produced 10k boards.  Good lord.  No wonder the 8k "missing" boards have never appeared, and the Foundation has kept tight lipped about them --- they never existed.  Batch #1 was 2k.

 * morgaine shakes head in disbelief.

when in doubt, who's numbers are you going to believe,

the guys actually making the thing or some anonymous

forum poster? 

I think by now it is painfully obvious that the missing 8000

units is just a hoax.  According to trustee Robert Mullins,

the foundation didn't even order 10K of the parts kits they said

they were ordering.  Instead they ordered 5K.

see page 9 here: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rdm34/raspi-talk.pdf

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/images/061012.jpg

looks like we now have a definitive statement from Liz that the 8k units

exist and are arriving before the middle of next week.  Someone ought

to alert Farnell and RS, as I'm sure they would be happy to know that.

Could you link to that statement please coder27?  It sounds like a key one.  I'm having great trouble finding anything on that site.

it's message 20 in this thread: http://www.raspberrypi.org/forum/general-discussion/am-i-missing-something/page-2 just after the suggestion that "for all I know they could be on the backs of 7 Sherpas traveling over the Himalayas as we type".

Well, well, apparently they do exist.

As you say coder27, perhaps someone might like to tell Farnell & RS as they make no mention of them.

Wonder if they will come with a silkscreened certification logo ?