Tag Archives: industry
Oops-Ed: TechCrunch Writer Says Consumers Don’t Need 3D Printers
In the early 1980s, Bill Gates was widely known to say “640K is more memory than anyone will ever need on a computer.” This famous quote seems laughable today as your standard home computer, tablet and phone are equipped with gigabytes of memory.
Well, today TechCrunch writer Jon Evans makes a similarly myopic claim about the 3D printer market, “There is no reason for any individual to have a 3D printer in their home.” We are sure Evans would love being compared to Gates, but let’s look more closely at his argument.
3D printing will be a serious threat to manufacturing as we know it. But not at home. That doesn’t make sense. Instead, we’ll have two kinds of communal 3D printer shops.
In high-infrastructure areas, there’ll be a clutch of online providers a la Stratasys (and I expect one of them to be Amazon.com): you’ll pick your 3D design from a huge online menu, send them size information and maybe a few photos from some kind of cunningly designed app, tweak the 3D preview until you’re happy, and they’ll print it out in some vast warehouse full of high-end high-speed 3D printers and ship it to you, possibly that same day.
In low-infrastructure areas, or if you’re a casual hobbyist, or if you have very specific requirements, you’ll head down the road to your nearest local printing facility. Depending on where you are, maybe this is tomorrow’s TechShop, maybe it’s a cluster of converted shipping containers on the outskirts of Uganda each with their own specialties and strengths. They’ll customize your order, render it in the cloud as needed, print it out, and tweak and iterate until it’s done. More expensive but more specific.
While we agree with Evans’ two predictions about online providers and tech shops, we do not agree with his assertion that there won’t be 3D printers in the home. Look at other markets: personal computers, inkjet or laser printers, photo printers, etc. In each of these cases, this technology started out expensive and niche, but eventually moved into the mainstream and enabled new industries to blossom.
Read Evans’ full post and the comments that ensue.
Bill Gates photo by MATEUS_27:24&25 used under Creative Commons license.
Top 10 Countdown: Most Popular 3D Printing Stories in August 2012
Here are the top 10 most popular stories On 3D Printing brought you in August 2012.
10. 3D Printed Meat for Dinner: Peter Thiel Backs Bioprinting Startup
9. TangiBot has a Kickstarter Project for a Much Cheaper MakerBot
8. Google Employees Treated to 3D Printed Pasta by Renowned Chef
7. Stratasys and HP Part Ways on 3D Printer Manufacturing
6. Open-Source 3D Printer Pwdr Takes on MakerBot, Offers New Materials
5. Finally, an iPhone Case That Does Something Useful (Opens Beers)
4. Video: Beauty and the Beak; a Bald Eagle’s 3D Printing Story
3. Team Great Britain Olympic Cyclists Fitted with 3D Printed Helmets
2. Infographic: How 3D Printing Works, Industry Growth, Stocks, and More
1. 3D Printing at Top of “Hype Cycle”, Gartner Reports
Thanks for reading in August!
3D Printing on the Horizon: Can You Spot the Trend?
Peter Goldmark is a former budget director of New York State and former publisher of the International Herald Tribune, headed the climate program at the Environmental Defense Fund. Mr. Goldmark weighs in on the 3D printing movement on Long Island Newsday.
It’s hard to spot a trend before it happens, and trends in technology are harder to decipher and predict than eating habits. But on our horizon is one powerful new technology, still in its birth pangs, that will revolutionize large parts of our production economy. It’s called 3D printing. It’s just starting to be talked about more in the media now; I learned about it from a friend who is advising one of the young companies in the field. Enthusiasts say this is coming at us like a freight train — but, in its early days, it looks very hard to me to tell how fast this train is moving.
He sees the implications as revolutionary as we do.
Think of where this may ultimately lead. What happens to the factory or the assembly line? What happens to the comparative advantage of China and other emerging countries where cheap labor and manufacturing underpin their entire economies? What happens to manufacturing jobs period, in any country, if all a computer operator has to do is input the specs of the desired item to a 3D replicator?
3D printing will spell the end of inventory as we know it. And at the most basic level, it will change the meaning and operation of that most fundamental law of business: economies of scale.
It’s not too early for Walmart, or the Teamsters, to start worrying.
Here’s a video showing the latest in 3D printing.
Read the full post at Newsday.
Trend commandments photo by Michael Covel used under Creative Commons license.
3D Printing at Top of “Hype Cycle”, Gartner Reports
Leading research firm Gartner published its annual “Hype Cycle” report. 3D printing was among the technologies at the peak of the hype cycle.
Big data, 3D printing, activity streams, Internet TV, Near Field Communication (NFC) payment, cloud computing and media tablets are some of the fastest-moving technologies identified in Gartner Inc.’s 2012 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies.
Gartner analysts said that these technologies have moved noticeably along the Hype Cycle since 2011, while consumerization is now expected to reach the Plateau of Productivity in two to five years, down from five to 10 years in 2011. Bring your own device (BYOD), 3D printing and social analytics are some of the technologies identified at the Peak of Inflated Expectations in this year’s Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle.
The Hype Cycle has a predictable path for technologies.
The Hype Cycle graphic has been used by Gartner since 1995 to highlight the common pattern of overenthusiasm, disillusionment and eventual realism that accompanies each new technology and innovation. The Hype Cycle Special Report is updated annually to track technologies along this cycle and provide guidance on when and where organizations should adopt them for maximum impact and value.
This year’s theme was tipping points.
We are at an interesting moment, a time when many of the scenarios we’ve been talking about for a long time are almost becoming reality,” said Hung LeHong, research vice president at Gartner. “The smarter smartphone is a case in point. It’s now possible to look at a smartphone and unlock it via facial recognition, and then talk to it to ask it to find the nearest bank ATM. However, at the same time, we see that the technology is not quite there yet. We might have to remove our glasses for the facial recognition to work, our smartphones don’t always understand us when we speak, and the location-sensing technology sometimes has trouble finding us.”
Read more at Gartner.
Top 3D Printing Headlines Last Week: Kids, Stocks, Suitcases, Fab Labs
A roundup of the top news On 3D Printing brought you from August 6 to August 12.
Monday, August 6
Tuesday, August 7
- 3D Printing On the Go: Portable 3D Printer PopFab Fits in a Suitcase
- Finally, an iPhone Case That Does Something Useful (Opens Beers)
Thursday, August 9
Friday, August 10
- Open-Source 3D Printer Pwdr Takes on MakerBot, Offers New Materials
- Setting Up and Running a Fab Lab: Primer, History, and Recommendations
Saturday, August 11
Sunday, August 12
