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The Raspberry Pi Model B+ has had its price cut to £16, bringing the mid-range board down to the same price as the basic Raspberry Pi A+. The price drop is a side effect of "production optimisations", according to the Raspberry Pi Foundation.

Despite the Raspberry Pi 2 -- a newer, faster version of Pi -- going on sale in February, the outdated B+ had continued to sell for the same price of $35 (£22). Foundation CEO Eben Upton said the Raspberry Pi 2 had already sold more than a million units, with the Model B+ also selling well despite its unchanged price.


The new $25 (£16) list price for the Raspberry Pi Model B+ brings it down to almost the same price as the A+, which is available for £15.50. To date there have been six versions of Raspberry Pi released -- the A and A+, B and B+, Pi 2 and the Compute model.

The first Pi debuted in February 2013 and the basic computers have since experienced phenomenal success. As of February this year, more than five million Raspberry Pis have been sold worldwide.

Upton said the price cut for the Model B+ made it ideal for people who don't need the "extra performance or memory" of the Raspberry Pi 2. The Pi 2 has a quad-core rather than single-core processor and runs at 900MHz rather than 700MHz. It also has 1GB of memory, up from 512MB.

In the UK the £16 Raspberry Pi Model B+ is available from RS Components. In the US MCM Electronics is also selling it for the new price of $25.