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This post is indicative of where we are on the hype cycle for 3D printing (http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2124315 http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2

This post is indicative of where we are on the hype cycle for 3D printing (http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2124315 http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2124315), i.e. right at the peak. Consumer products are still, and will be for a few years, made in traditional ways. The lower cost of production in China being the biggest factor today for the last step of concept to real. Pumping money into a sector will accelerate it, but the heating funding environment for hardware isn't a fundamental change. To draw an analogy to software you really need to compare timescales and access to sufficient technology. A talented developer can rent sufficient technology to support thousands of customers a day on a website and build the product in a week for a small launch. On axes of both time and money hardware idea to product are still at least an order of magnitude higher. Which, to be fair, is still much better than it has been, and a welcome evolution of the market.

jborts 14y ago
The main draw of 3D printing isn't to replace the lower cost manufacturing we have in China et al, but to decrease the cost of producing prototypes. As Amanda mentions, this, coupled with a number of other new innovations, will finally allow hardware startups to iterate like their software brethren have done for decades. This can only lead to an explosion in hardware innovation.
- yew-right 14y ago
  Exactly. But why should it be limited to just prototypes? If I can produce a casing for a development board that looks as good as some overpriced Apple junk or locked down Microsoft OEM crap, there's no need for me to jump through all their silly hoops. I can make my own device to do just the things I want it to do. My way. re: the electronics of today's hardware: It's all the same stuff, more or less. How many factories are there? How many chipmakers? Oustide of uber-geeks, people are not that fussy about what's on the inside of their devices. Give them the power to make their own gadget that is personalised and programmable, and many of them will have no need to play games with Apple or Microsoft.
  - retroafroman 14y ago
    So called '3D printers' are actually rapid prototyping machines. Usually of the additive variety. The reason they are called rapid prototype machines is because their capability to is fairly well limited to prototypes. The time required to print an object vs. injection mold an object is at least one order of magnitude apart, for state of the art machines (between many minutes to hours for 3D printers compared with seconds with most injection molding processes). It will be many more years before 3D printers, and especially hobbyist level machines, can produce parts comparable to those made in traditional manufacturing (read: high capital investment) techniques in regards to cycle time, surface finish, variety of material, consistency, and durability.

jborts 14y ago

The main draw of 3D printing isn't to replace the lower cost manufacturing we have in China et al, but to decrease the cost of producing prototypes. As Amanda mentions, this, coupled with a number of other new innovations, will finally allow hardware startups to iterate like their software brethren have done for decades. This can only lead to an explosion in hardware innovation.

yew-right 14y ago
Exactly. But why should it be limited to just prototypes? If I can produce a casing for a development board that looks as good as some overpriced Apple junk or locked down Microsoft OEM crap, there's no need for me to jump through all their silly hoops. I can make my own device to do just the things I want it to do. My way. re: the electronics of today's hardware: It's all the same stuff, more or less. How many factories are there? How many chipmakers? Oustide of uber-geeks, people are not that fussy about what's on the inside of their devices. Give them the power to make their own gadget that is personalised and programmable, and many of them will have no need to play games with Apple or Microsoft.
- retroafroman 14y ago
  So called '3D printers' are actually rapid prototyping machines. Usually of the additive variety. The reason they are called rapid prototype machines is because their capability to is fairly well limited to prototypes. The time required to print an object vs. injection mold an object is at least one order of magnitude apart, for state of the art machines (between many minutes to hours for 3D printers compared with seconds with most injection molding processes). It will be many more years before 3D printers, and especially hobbyist level machines, can produce parts comparable to those made in traditional manufacturing (read: high capital investment) techniques in regards to cycle time, surface finish, variety of material, consistency, and durability.