樹莓派已經成為計算機領域一個相當突出的現象。這種簡易電腦連機箱都沒有，就更不用說軟件了。但實際情況證明，這款成本只有35美元的產品備受孩子們和動手愛好者青睞。

實際上，由于非常熱門，設在英國的樹莓派基金會現已售出了1000萬臺樹莓派電腦。

正如樹莓派之父埃本·阿普頓上周四在博客中所說，他們最初的打算只是想讓更多人申請到劍橋大學的計算機專業讀書。

阿普頓寫道：“當時我們覺得，如果運氣好，這款產品的總銷量也許能達到1萬臺。我們根本沒指望成年人來使用它，也沒期望在商業上取得成功，當然更不會想到四年后樹莓派在英國的日產量會達到數萬臺，而且銷往世界各地。”

當然，當時也許沒有明確跡象顯示樹莓派的崛起會和嵌入式計算的爆發性增長同步，甚至對后者起了推動作用。

接入互聯網的不光是各種各樣的常規物品，眾多新型設備也實現了聯網，比如無人機和可穿戴設備。和Arduino以及Adafruit等平臺一樣，實踐證明樹莓派計算機非常有用，對初創型企業來說是這樣，對想以微成本把這些領域的新點子變成原型產品的業余愛好者來說同樣如此。

對許多普通人來說，樹莓派的作用也非常之大。今年早些時候，第三個版本的樹莓派終于集成了Wi-Fi和藍牙功能，從而不再需要為了無線通信而額外購買硬件，也讓它成為更可行的家庭個人電腦取代品。

這款產品的成功不僅有利于樹莓派基金會。它還占樹莓派約一半產量的英國制造商Premier Farnell成為誘人的收購目標。電子元件經銷企業安富利上周四表示，美國監管部門已經同意它斥資9.07億美元收購Premier Farnell。

同時，樹莓派基金會將部分銷售款用于資助為兒童和教師開設的編程課程。

阿普頓寫道：“大家可以想象得到，能夠宣布樹莓派電腦在過去四年半里的銷量高達1000萬臺是一種多么奇怪的感覺。感謝各位，我們的成果比我們最狂野的想象高了三個數量級，而這還僅僅是個開始。”

為慶祝1000萬臺銷量這個里程碑，該基金會宣布推出一款價格99英鎊（132美元）的初學者套餐，其中包括了一些人們往往會添加在核心部件之上的東西，比如HDMI連接線、鼠標、鍵盤、電源、一張SD卡（用于存儲免費下載的Linux操作系統）以及一個機箱。噢，對了，還有一本旨在幫助較年輕用戶上手的指導書。（財富中文網）

譯者：Charlie

審校：詹妮

The Raspberry Pi is quite a phenomenon in the computing world—a stripped-down computer that doesn’t even come with a case, let alone software, but that costs just $35 and has proven a hit with kids and other tinkerers.

Such a hit, in fact, that the U.K.-based Raspberry Pi Foundation has now sold 10 million of the things.

As Raspberry Pi founder Eben Upton noted in a Thursday blog post, the original idea was just to get more people applying to study computer science at the University of Cambridge.

“At the time, we thought our lifetime volumes might amount to ten thousand units—if we were lucky,” Upton wrote. “There was no expectation that adults would use Raspberry Pi, no expectation of commercial success, and certainly 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.”

Of course, at the time it may not have been apparent that the rise of the Raspberry Pi would coincide with—and perhaps even help fuel—the explosion in embedded computing.

Not only are all sorts of regular devices becoming connected to the Internet, but a variety of new device types have appeared, such as drones and wearable computers. Along with platforms such as Arduino and Adafruit, Raspberry Pi computers have proven very useful to startups and hobbyists that want to prototype new ideas in such areas at minimal expense.

The Pi is perfectly usable for a lot of regular people too. Earlier this year, version 3 of the Raspberry Pi finallyintegrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth functionality, removing the need to buy extra dongles for wireless connectivity and making it a more viable PC replacement for people’s living rooms.

The device’s success has not just been good for the foundation that’s behind it. It also helped make Premier Farnell, the U.K. firm that distributes about half of the Raspberry Pi units, an attractive takeover target—component firm Avnet said Thursday that U.S. regulators had cleared its $907 million acquisition of the distributor.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation uses some of the proceeds of sales to fund coding courses for kids and teachers.

“You can imagine how strange it feels to be able to announce that over the last four and a half years we’ve sold a grand total of ten million Raspberry Pis,” Upton wrote. “Thanks to you, we’ve beaten our wildest dreams by three orders of magnitude, and we’re only just getting started.”

To celebrate the 10-million-sold milestone, the foundation announced a ￡99 ($132) starter kit that comes with some of the add-ons that people tend to buy for the core product—am HDMI cable, a mouse and keyboard, a power supply, an SD card for the free downloadable Linux operating system, and a case. Oh, and an educational book aimed at helping younger users get started.