My company has over a dozen 3D printers in the our design office in SF and our manufacturing facility in Shenzhen. They range from $250K professional units to $

My company has over a dozen 3D printers in the our design office in SF and our manufacturing facility in Shenzhen. They range from $250K professional units to $1K consumer models. I've seen the progression from old 2001 models to the the state of the art models purchased this year. 12 years later, and the latest printers are good for 1 purpose. PROTOTYPING Sure, a hobbyist may find this tech somewhat useful. For example to print a case for his raspberry PI. Even that takes 4 hours to print, and if he drops it, it will shatter. Oh and finish is TERRIBLE. If a mass produced version is available it will always be better in every way. I've never held any 3D printed part in my hand that compares to a nice soft touch painted part, or even an injected molded piece. This tech is like where the semiconductor industry was in the 50s. 60 years from now, we'll be printing some cool shit. But in a few years time, we're not going to be printing out shoes, headphones, and furniture like people here are dreaming about here.