Raspberry Pi hits record 10m sales

The British-designed computer the size of a credit card, Raspberry Pi, has sold 10m units, according to a report by the BBC.

The computer was first released in 2012 mainly as an educational tool for programming but it also has many other purposes, such as streaming music to various household devices.

The Raspberry Pi foundation is releasing a new starter kit to celebrate the success. The kit includes a keyboard, mouse, an SD card, official case, power supply, HDMI cable and a guidebook. It costs £99 and will be made available in the coming weeks.

The device has been used by students, programmers and inventors around the world. The charity have distributed the product for free in many cases.

British astronaut Tim Peake took one on his voyage to the International Space station.

Founder Eben Upton wrote in a blog: "We thought our lifetime volumes might amount to 10,000 units - if we were lucky."

"There was no expectation that four years later we would be manufacturing tens of thousands of units a day in the UK and exporting Raspberry Pi all over the world" he added.

Tech industry analyst Chris Green said he owns four of the computers himself at business consultancy Lewis.

"It's more than just a geeky coding tool - it's increasingly proving itself as a useful computer," said Green.

He went on to comment on The Raspberry Pi Zero version of the product which is smaller and cheaper, making it ideal for developing countries.

"They can run off batteries so where there isn't an abundance of electricity you still have a computer that can be used for teaching" said Green.

However, Bethany Koby, co-founder of education-focused start-up Technology Will Save Us, argues that the device was more complicated for children to understand than the BBC Micro Bit.

Earlier this year, 1m BBC Micro Bit computers were delivered for free to Year Seven students in England and Wales.

Many companies are involved with the product. Premier Farnell and Electrocomponents both distribute the computers and Stadium Group has designed a power supply for Raspberry Pi 3.