Raspberry Pi CEO Eben Upton said on the recent ExplainingComputers show that due to the continued supply chain recovery, Raspberry Pi may not release the Raspberry Pi 5 in 2023. The company is only just beginning to recover from two years of “supply chain hell,” so fans shouldn’t expect a Raspberry Pi 4 successor to arrive next year.

“So I think don’t expect a Pi 5 next year, next year is the recovery year.”

Eben also said that the company has set aside “a little over a hundred thousand” of the Zero W, Pi 3A+, and 2GB and 4GB versions of the Raspberry Pi 4 for single-unit sales ahead of the holidays. But they still have a “substantial” backlog of orders from commercial customers; they need to deal with the backlog while dealing with the challenge of restocking with resellers who serve individual developers.

The Zero and Zero W will be back in supply first, with less commercial demand for the Pi 3A+. Relatively speaking, the supply recovery of Pi 4 will be slower, and it is expected to reach unlimited levels around the end of the third quarter of 2023. “The next year’s chip allocation we’ve received means that by the end of the third quarter, the channel will return to balanced inventory levels, with hundreds of thousands of units available at any one time.”

Regarding the Pi 5 issue, Eben argues that the supply chain issues since the pandemic have dragged everyone down, not just the Raspberry Pi; so it pays to take a year to recover. And said that even though the Pi 5 is expected to be produced on a different process node, the launch of the Pi 5 could jeopardize the restoration of the Pi 4, Pi 3 or 3+ supply. In addition, it could lead to a troubled Pi 5 launch. “So I think we’re going to be very careful about how we move forward.”

However, he also pointed out that if the Pi 5 is not launched in 2023, the Pi 4 launched in June 2019 will become the longest-serving Pi platform to date. Eben revealed that the Pi 5 is more likely to come out in 2024.