“It feels like just yesterday that we released the Raspberry Pi keyboard and hub to the world. Well, it turns out it’s been more than a year, and time really has flown for the next stage of this project, which brings four new language/country options: Portugal, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. They’re available to buy now from Raspberry Pi Approved Resellers.
Raspberry Pi keyboards
The keyboard and hub has been a great success, with many users adopting our Raspberry Pi red and white colour scheme for their setup. As well as this satisfying uptake of the keyboard on its own, we’ve also sold tens of thousands of Raspberry Pi Desktop Kits which include a keyboard, alongside the official mouse, Beginners Guide and, of course, a Raspberry Pi.
We made the black and grey set up for users who own a black and grey Raspberry Pi case, but, with four out of five people choosing the red and white variant, it just goes to show what a bit of company branding can do for business!
We’ve found that the US keyboard is the most popular model, with over half our users choosing that option. As a Brit, I prefer the chunkier Enter key of the UK keyboard.
New variants
There is always a demand to support more users with keyboards to match their country and language so, as a second phase, we are announcing keyboards for the following countries:
Portugal
Norway
Sweden
Denmark
These new keyboards are available now in red and white, with black and grey options coming soon. They are just print changes from previously released variants, but the devil proved to be in the detail.
For example, we hoped early on that the Portuguese keyboard would suit users in Brazil too, but we learned that Brazilian and European Portuguese keyboard layouts are quite different. Given the differences between UK and US keyboard layouts, this really shouldn’t have surprised us!
There is a very subtle difference between the Norway and Denmark keyboards. I wonder if anyone can spot it?
Spot the difference
We also discovered that a Finnish keyboard layout exists, but I couldn’t identify any differences between it and the Sweden keyboard. While I don’t speak Finnish, I do speak Swedish – an awesome language that everyone should learn – so I came to these investigations with a bit of relevant knowledge. I found that there are very small changes between different manufacturers, but no consistent differences between Finnish and Swedish keyboards, and ultimately I was guided by what Raspberry Pi OS expects as the correct function for these keyboards. I do hope I am right about these two keyboards being the same… I expect I’ll soon find out in the comments!
We know that many users are waiting for a Japan keyboard variant. We hardly ever talk about new products before they are released, but we’re breaking our rule, in this case, to let you know that we hope to have some news about this very soon – so watch this space!
I’d like to give special thanks to Sherman Liu of Gembird for the new key matrix design, and Craig Wightman of Kinneir Dufort for his patience in designing all the key print revisions.
Happy coding, folks!”