The Raspberry Pi Foundation, creators of the super-popular $35 micro-computer, is launching an Approved Reseller programme to recognise its best distribution partners.
The scheme is designed to both make purchasing Raspberry Pi units and accessories easier for customers, and to highlight those resellers that the charity feels represent the Raspberry Pi brand especially well.
From today, customers are able to access the online store pages of approved resellers directly from the Raspberry Pi Foundation's products page via the 'Buy now' button, with a 'Buy for business' option available for those who wish to purchase enterprise inventory from one of the foundation's two licensed partners for business distribution.
The Approved Reseller programme will initially launch in 11 countries - South Africa, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the UK - but the foundation plans to expand the programme to more than 50 countries in the coming weeks.
"Ever since the launch of the first Raspberry Pi back in 2012, one thing that has been critical to us is to make our products easy to buy in as many countries as possible," director of product management, Mike Buffham, wrote in a blog post. "Buying a Raspberry Pi is certainly much simpler nowadays than it was when we were just starting out. Nevertheless, we want to go even further".
In addition to this, the foundation is also unveiling six new resellers for the Raspberry Pi Zero, the smaller $5 variant of the Raspberry Pi. The new resellers will directly supply 13 countries that previously lacked access to the Raspberry Pi Zero, including Brazil and India.
UK resellers currently listed on RaspberryPi.org are CPC, The Pi Hut, Mod My Pi, Pi Supply, and RS.
