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Is someone buying a cheap knockoff really a lost sale for prusa? Rather than a prusa my guess would be that they would buy some other cheap printer instead. Th

by tjoff 4y ago

Is someone buying a cheap knockoff really a lost sale for prusa? Rather than a prusa my guess would be that they would buy some other cheap printer instead. Then after a while they might appreciate what prusa is offering and potentially become a customer.

stu2b50 4y ago
Yes, but with more criteria than "cheap knockoff". There's a lot of companies these days that satisfy the niche of "printers that print well and quickly out of the box without tinkering". Furthermore, many of them are priced below Prusa's offerings. "Cheap knockoff" implies a significant degradation in quality, but the reality is that they are of equal quality, and lower price - the fact that Prusa is open source and has a good reputation as a brand can make up ground, but in the end many consumers mainly care about meeting a certain standard of performance, and then sorting by ascending price. Prusa went from niche to fairly mainstream by being the printer that "just works". Mainstream is way more money than the enthusiast, hobby segment of the 3d printing market. So they would feel the burn from having those sales lost.
- tjoff 4y ago
  "Cheap knockoff" might be good enough for many usecases, but they are not near equal quality. I'd guess the printer farm is paramount to prusas reliability. Don't know if anyone else runs something similar? If not for printing parts for their own printers having their own printer-service might be a good idea.
KeplerBoy 4y ago
The knockoffs are great though and they offered many things years ahead of prusa (32 bit controllers with wifi, bed leveling, ...). Prusas product cycle is slow which prevents them from keeping up with the competition. Now they have an answer to the latest an greatest versions of their knockoffs like ender s1 pros, but by the time Prusa is ready for their next refresh the market will be dominated by fast and cheap knockoffs of the bambulabs. I believe prusa is not winning this.
- tjoff 4y ago
  Prusa was the first proper printer with bed levelling in its class? 32 bit isn't really a feature in this context. Wifi, sure. Not for me but I get that some would want it. Not sure what keeping up means here, prusa is killing it and it felt like their sales was reflecting that too. But prusa might not agree. I've looked at the competition and the only printer I'd consider over mk4 is a voron. But I don't want to spend that time on sourcing parts etc. And it would be understandable if the voron built with the tradeoffs for any one individual is going to have it's own type of quirks. I'd rather spend time on designing and using my parts than on the printer. Wasn't always the case though! There was a time where a voron would be ideal for me.

by tjoff 4y ago

stu2b50 4y ago

Yes, but with more criteria than "cheap knockoff". There's a lot of companies these days that satisfy the niche of "printers that print well and quickly out of the box without tinkering". Furthermore, many of them are priced below Prusa's offerings. "Cheap knockoff" implies a significant degradation in quality, but the reality is that they are of equal quality, and lower price - the fact that Prusa is open source and has a good reputation as a brand can make up ground, but in the end many consumers mainly care about meeting a certain standard of performance, and then sorting by ascending price. Prusa went from niche to fairly mainstream by being the printer that "just works". Mainstream is way more money than the enthusiast, hobby segment of the 3d printing market. So they would feel the burn from having those sales lost.

tjoff 4y ago
"Cheap knockoff" might be good enough for many usecases, but they are not near equal quality. I'd guess the printer farm is paramount to prusas reliability. Don't know if anyone else runs something similar? If not for printing parts for their own printers having their own printer-service might be a good idea.

KeplerBoy 4y ago

The knockoffs are great though and they offered many things years ahead of prusa (32 bit controllers with wifi, bed leveling, ...). Prusas product cycle is slow which prevents them from keeping up with the competition. Now they have an answer to the latest an greatest versions of their knockoffs like ender s1 pros, but by the time Prusa is ready for their next refresh the market will be dominated by fast and cheap knockoffs of the bambulabs. I believe prusa is not winning this.

tjoff 4y ago
Prusa was the first proper printer with bed levelling in its class? 32 bit isn't really a feature in this context. Wifi, sure. Not for me but I get that some would want it. Not sure what keeping up means here, prusa is killing it and it felt like their sales was reflecting that too. But prusa might not agree. I've looked at the competition and the only printer I'd consider over mk4 is a voron. But I don't want to spend that time on sourcing parts etc. And it would be understandable if the voron built with the tradeoffs for any one individual is going to have it's own type of quirks. I'd rather spend time on designing and using my parts than on the printer. Wasn't always the case though! There was a time where a voron would be ideal for me.