Wrong country, I know, but there didn't seem to be a limit at Sparkfun so I ordered 4. They are sold out until late February when they expect to get 5000+. Sadly, there is going to be a limit of 100 per customer on this batch. Maybe I'll have my wife place a second order...
https://www.sparkfun.com/products/17829
I have no intention of buying 100. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the first four.
I think you are right, across other countries as well. I think by delaying my order for a few days (but it could be weeks). The supplier(s), will both have stock and allow the purchase of more than 1. It is only the initial shortage, that has caused the out of stock situation (and my hesitancy at buying into the first batch of them), that is causing this situation.
tl;dr
Hopefully shortly, more suppliers will have stock and allow >1 to by purchased. Then I can get some.
If so, will it be at a competitive price ?
Pricing, and distributor arrangements, have not been disclosed.
What do you consider "competitively priced"? If it's $4, would that be awful? (It's approximately similar to a SAMD21G18. It'd also be similar to the Arduino vs bare AVR situation we have now, where you can buy Arduino pro-mini clones-from-China for only slightly more than you can buy bare ATmega328p chips...)
There were too many nested quotes, so I may have changed your post a bit, when I tidied it. Hopefully NOT.
I agree, even $4 (for the chip), would not be too bad. Unless we are talking about bigger volumes and/or very cost sensitive applications. Hopefully it will be cheaper in practice, and even better if they have discounted volume purchase quantities, as well. Especially if the volume discount points, are not too big, either. I.e. x100 and x1,000. Rather than needing to be hundreds of thousands or millions, which it is rumored to be, for some MCUs. Otherwise the MCU manufacturer doesn't want to deal with you.
Anyway, overnight (and a result of what has been said in this thread). I'm planning to get some (I'm patient), and will wait until the supply situation gets better.
Also, I think I've had the WRONG attitude about the PICO. The issue isn't exactly what you get for your $4, or me complaining about some missing features, such as > 3 or 4 A2D inputs.
Because SOFTWARE really is a massive thing. This product is likely to be VERY popular, and have a big and very significant following.
So, various pre-made hardware things are likely to become available (such as plug in mini push switch sets, with 4 to 8 buttons), Led panels with 10 (very approx quantity) RGB Leds, plug in speakers, etc etc.
Also a big software eco system.
Those are the really big factors. Not the exact price or functionality.
I.e. I could (the prices seem to have gone up hugely, recently) 6+ months ago, get a complete STM8 microcontroller board, assembled with header pins (loose/not-fitted) and mini USB power connector, for around 85p, if buying in multi packs of x2, x5 or x10.
E.g. x10 pack, for around £8.50 (including delivery), from China.
But it lacked a proper/full software eco system, information (although there was some, and more still if you searched for it), and wouldn't really work 100% properly, and could be cloned chips, etc etc.
So, $4 for a proper working, non-fake/cloned chip, with huge amounts of accurate information available for it. Many hardware devices (as upgrades) and software, such as multiple programming languages and example projects. Makes it a sort of 'Arduino on steroids', kind of system.
tl;dr
On reflection, this is looking more and more like a real bargain.