Yeah, we get the pandemic was hard but there is an obvious and measurable lag between Rasperry Pi's post pandemic sales compared to almost every other technology sector with the same reliance on chips: Cars/GPUs/Motherboards/Networking/IOT, etc. I'm not sure what the cause was but possibly poor management - I know gasp
I understand they wanted to focus on industry that relies on RBPi's for products but they have opened the door for competition from smaller Chinese/Taiwanese manufacturers that are now producing better hardware. The only saving grace is the software support being lagging. That being said, that gap in software support is closing because the community has been looking for alternatives. it's been 3 years, 6 months since the 4B's launch and at this rate it will lag by another two years for the RBPi 5 - if Upton's comment about "End of 2023" being when sales get back to normal, and THEN they will launch a 5 in 2024... Which, would mean 5+ years. Yeah, nope. You mismanaged your post pandemic production and now are scrambling to fulfill orders. Again, EVERY industry has had similar issues to overcome and is for the most part back to normal.
BTW, the recent video of Upton saying they care about the scalpers should have happened already - we are all dealing with over priced PIs. I'm glad you finally are waking up to the issue but again, too little too late for anyone that's been looking to purchase a Pi for ALL of 2021 and 2022 - it's been scalpers doubling or more. Meanwhile the competition has been selling better hardware for less. The video and this apologetic response just seem like they are scrambling to reduce bad press before it comes to bite them on the *** 😆
So bring on the competition, I love RBPI's mission initially to serve the maker community and tinkerers but you snooze, you lose. You focus on industry then you will lose the market that put you on the map -- And that is a lesson that we'll be reading about in 2023 and 2024 ¯\(ツ)/¯