The 3-D printing industry now, looks a lot like the computer industry around 1976, doesn't it? We have the equivalents of big expensive mainframes, as well as c

The 3-D printing industry now, looks a lot like the computer industry around 1976, doesn't it? We have the equivalents of big expensive mainframes, as well as cheaper, but still pretty pricey, minicomputers. Cupcake & RepRap strike me as being analogous to something like the Altair 8800 or the Aim-65: fun for seriously geeky hobbyists, but not really ready for prime time. So the 3-D printing industry doesn't have its Apple ][ / Pet / TRS-80 yet. In the computer industry, back in '76, those were only a year away. And then in 5 years there was the IBM PC, in 6 years the Commodore 64, and in 8 years the Macintosh, and suddenly these little machines were everywhere. Is 3-D printing going to advance that quickly? I doubt it. The technical challenges, and especially the price issues, look pretty tricky. I do think we'll get there before too long, though. It should be interesting to watch.