Raspberry Pi cuts the cost of its older mini-computer by a third

Three months after the Raspberry Pi Foundation unveiled the second incarnation of its mini computer for hardware hobbyists, the U.K.-based organization has announced it’s dropping the price of the previous version of the device by almost a third.

When the Raspberry Pi 2 hit the market in February, the company managed to retain the $35 pricing of the preceding B+ model by making “production optimizations” — even though the specifications were significantly improved. However, the Foundation says that a byproduct of these optimizations has meant that the “lesser” model is cheaper to make too. Thus, its cost has now been scythed to $25.

The Raspberry Pi was designed as an easy entry point for programmers, as well as an affordable means of “hacking” new technologies in emerging markets. It has come a long way since launch in 2012 — while it only supported a handful of operating systems initially, including Linux, the upgrade to the ARMv7 processor in the Raspberry Pi 2 allows it to support Windows too. This broadens the appeal of the credit card-sized contraption considerably, and transforms it into a very capable machine that can do many of the same things a normal PC can.

While the Raspberry Pi 2 does offer six times more processing power and two times more memory than the previous “B+” model, the latter’s price drop makes it a very appealing proposition for technical tinkerers. There is still the $20 Model A+ available too, if you’re content with even lower specifications.

The new pricing will come into effect across the board over the next few days, though for those in the U.S., MCM Electronics has already updated its pricing.

Source: Raspberry Pi Blog [via Engadget]