Tag Archives: Walmart
3DLT Launches at TechCrunch Disrupt After Challenging Past
3DLT Launches 3D Printing Marketplace
3DLT, a 3D printing marketplace that was accused of stealing designs and subsequently issued a mea culpa, has rebounded and officially launched. Wearing a tuxedo, founder and CEO Pablo Arellano, Jr. pitched on stage during the battlefield round at TechCrunch Disrupt in New York.
3DLT describes itself as a marketplace where industrial designers, companies, and makers can sell 3D printable designs, direct to consumers.
“The 3D printing market needs a retail marketplace where consumers can buy print-ready designs,” said 3DLT’s Founder and CEO, Pablo Arellano, Jr. “With all of the interest in 3D printing, and the sheer number of 3D printers being sold, there will soon be a huge demand for content, and that’s what 3DLT provides.”
Lux Research predicts 3D printing will be an $8.4 billion industry by 2025, up from under $1 billion in 2012. Research firm Gartner believes that enterprise-class printers priced below $2,000 will be available in the market from as early as 2016, and some low-end printers, including the MakiBox, are already available for less than $200.
3DLT provides files – the blueprints for 3D printable products. Consumers can visit 3DLT.com and browse through multiple, well-curated categories of 3D printable designs. Once purchased, they can download and print-ready files on their own 3D printer. They can also send the designs they buy to 3DLT’s network of 3D print shops for local pickup or drop shipment directly to their door.
3DLT’s business model has the potential to change the way we shop,” Mr. Arellano said. Walmart made shopping easier by putting millions of products, all under one roof, closer to the consumer. Amazon took the next step of delivering to your doorstep. 3DLT goes even further by allowing you to choose, when, where, and how the items you buy are manufactured.”
Watch Arellano pitch at TechCrunch Disrupt in the video below.
Chris Anderson Clears the Air: 3D Printing Won’t Work for Making Guns
Former editor-in-chief of Wired Chris Anderson weighed in on the 3D printed gun debate with a simple rebuttal:
“3D printing is a terrible technology for the working components of a gun. There is no tensile strength. It would blow up in your face. You can buy guns in Walmart — they are not a scarce product. And if you want a good barrel you can go and get a bit of plumbing from the store.”
This comes after a wave of concern and paranoia about people 3D printing their own guns at home in the wake of school shootings that rocked the news. One such example was the “Wiki Weapon” from Defense Distributed, pictured below.
Hopefully this type of common sense will prevent regulation from hindering the potential of 3D printing to revolutionize our world.
Chris Anderson photo by Tom Foremski.
Via Wired.
Video: 3D Printing and the Future of Personalized Shopping
ReasonTV’s Nick Gillespie sat down with Peter Weijmarshausen, CEO of the New York based 3D printing company Shapeways, to discuss 3D printing, the future of customization, and the economics behind the new technology.
Gillepsie asks Weijmarshausen if we are “in the dot matrix era of 3D printing.” Weijmarshausen explains how 3D printing will shape the future of shopping, saying “you may think this is science fiction, but it’s not.”
“What we want…is not to be about 3D printing, but to be about empowering people to get what they want,” said Weijmarshausen. “We enable people to be involved in the products, and I think they like that.”
Weijmarshausen believes that the growing popularity of 3D printing will revolutionize the ways we shop, giving consumers the choice to customize their products rather than settle for the small number of mass produced goods already on the market.
Watch the video below.
