'PiPads' Are Coming, Raspberry Pi Tablets To Arrive By Year End

Since the Raspberry Pi mini-computer hit the market in early 2012, the company behind it has wanted to release a touch display that perfectly complements it. Well, RPi's founder, Eben Upton, revealed at TechCrunch's Disrupt conference that it's finally on its way. Get ready to build your very-own "PiPad".

Admittedly, to call anything a tablet that's simply a touchscreen connected to a small motherboard is trying too hard, but clunkiness aside, the possibilities here are endless. Assuming that the price is kept low, just like the RPi is, this could be a huge boon to those wanting to implement touch into their projects. I could even see some people making a business out of building purpose-built machines with the RPi and its touchscreen, though we'll have to wait and see what those could be.

Up to this point, a staggering 4 million RPis have shipped, and it's the foundation's hope that this touchscreen will help keep that momentum going, if not improve it. It's also soon to reveal a brand-new A model, called A+, which should make up for the lackluster sales of the original (it sold 100K, versus the B's 4 million).

The touchscreen is slated to hit the market later this year, and pricing information will likely wait until then. If I had to guess, it'll cost about the same as the RPi model B, which is $35.

If you don't want to wait for the touchscreen, and instead want to dive right in, maybe this could act as some inspiration?