[HH] Raspberry Pi , FXI Cotton Candy

[Tom Metro]

Tom Metro wrote:
> They went live early AM on Wednesday, but the two distributors:
> http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/bespoke/bespoke7.jsp?ICID=I-RASP-HPBLOF-0015&bespokepage=farnell/en_UK/promotions/raspberryPi.jsp
> http://uk.rs-online.com/web/generalDisplay.html?id=raspberrypi
> 
> were overloaded.

Both servers are working now, but RS still shows a "register your
interest" form, and Farnell shows a pre-order page with no pricing.

So what happened? Did they sell out? (Oddly no official statement made
on their blog or twitter.) If so, why go back to a pre-order setup,
which is usually what you'd see before a product gets released. It
should be a regular order page now, with an indication the item is out
of stock or backordered.


The Farnell logo looks familiar. UK arm of Newark? I guess so, I see a
tweet:

  Just preordered one IN THE USA from Newark. Part # is 83T1943. Lead
  time 30 days.

http://www.newark.com/raspberry-pi/raspbrry-pcba/dp/83T1943?Ntt=83T1943
  Availability: 0 (Further stock expected to ship Mar 30, 2012)
  Price $35.00

The Q&A section on the page says there is a $20 drop-ship fee, which you
can apparently avoid by ordering over the phone, and requesting delivery
from a US warehouse, at the expense of additional delivery time. More on
the fee here:

http://www.element14.com/community/message/45370#45370/l/re-pre-order-from-us


I see the same site also has a thread on the "open source" nature (or
lack thereof) of the hardware:
http://www.element14.com/community/message/45361#45361/l/re-not-open-source-hardware

 -Tom