Devlin posted a comment in response to my last post which really deserves it’s own space:
Thank you! I share your sentiments. However, one would argue that we already have our MakerBots and have some kind of bias. I got mine about a month after I ordered and I was pretty excited the whole time I was waiting but I knew it was worth the wait.
MakerBot is starting to get hurt by its own popularity. It seems the userbase is getting more mainstream and there will be people that will be expecting this $750 machine to print the same stuff as a $30,000 printer, will want it to print things right out of the box with one click of the mouse and not contribute to making the machine better.
People that buy a MakerBot must understand that it is still in its infancy. To compare it to a previous revolution: the MakerBot 3D printer is at the same stage as personal computers when they were only available as a kit, programs had to be keyed in on 16 key pad and were displayed on seven-segment displays. If people can not deal with the problems this might entail, then they should wait the PC’s ten years for their own IBM PC/Apple/Atari/Commodore to come out or for someone to build the parts needed to make a RepRap for them (something I need to work on myself).
MakerBots are not a product that you go out to BestBuy and get because you saw it in some magazine or blog. It is a product that you buy to build and modify to make stuff. It is closer to a fruiting potted plant than a printer you buy at BestBuy. It requires tending, understanding and maybe even love.
There’s a lot to think about here. Let’s take Devlin’s points in turn:
- I may be biased since I’ve already got my MakerBot. I ordered my MakerBot on November 23, 2009, it was expected to ship about December 3, 2009, shipment was delayed until December 11, 2009, and I didn’t receive it until December 15, 2009. Now, I chose to pre-order a MakerBot. Had I pulled the trigger a few weeks earlier I could have picked up one of the last kits from Batch 8. Like me you probably waited to buy a MakerBot. I was so excited about getting my MakerBot that I started this website, started designing things to print, and started stocking up on the materials I needed to build it.
- MakerBot is getting hurt by their popularity. More mainstream people probably are interested in picking up a MakerBot. However, I don’t think anyone’s hopes are too high. They may want a MakerBot, but there’s no escaping that the only way to get one is to get a kit and put it together yourself.
- MakerBots are not commercial yet. Not, not yet. Then again, this MakerBot Industries’ end game – distributed manufacturing and a 3D printer on every kitchen table. We’re not yet to the plug-n-play – USB port recognizing, “New device connected – 3D fabricator!” In fact, the software is probably still some of the most frustrating part of using a MakerBot. Skeinforge is a harsh mistress. However, since everything is open source every one of us is just one alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine intoxicated hacker away from this reality.
Do you think the expectations difference could be at all connected to Bre’s constant overselling of the product to anyone that will listen? He’s completely disconnected from reality in the way he talks about the Makerbot and what it can do. He’s got the look and feel of the sham dot com boom types, overselling in hopes of getting some bigger company to buy them up, so they could unload their utter mismanaged and badly organized start up. In probably under an year they’ll sell out and then a corporate entity will realize their mistake and kill the product like they did as the boom died.
What company would buy Makerbot when all their IP is freely shared and open source? In my impression, startups are valued on their talent and the intellectual property they own. When you don’t make money off the IP, but from the objects a company, another could just “Wal-Mart” them out of business.
Their problem is that the passionate artists/designers/engineers that are Makerbot Industries are creating a new paradigm in business. Can it succeed in the current paradigm? Can it grow? That is what we will all find out.
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That’s just another reason we’re probably not going to see a for-profit company swallow up MakerBot Industries.
I honestly don’t know if a company built on open source technology can “succeed” in the traditional closed-source sense of success. I can’t say for sure what MBI’s definition of success is – but I suspect it has something to do with a distributed means of production.
Can a company Wal-Mart them out of business? HP could probably build 3D printers for less than MBI – but would they? They don’t make money off printers – they make money off cartridges, toner, etc. So, if HP isn’t making a killing off the kits or from the plastic or replacement parts… why would they bother?
More importantly, how often to we see big innovation with printers? MakerBot is a small crew who has been able to improve their product several times over the last 10 batches. I don’t think there’s any way HP could have gone through so many generations in just a single year.
I would love to see makerbot stay in business, but I am sure companies selling makerbot solutions and upgraded parts, plug and play, print heads, heated platforms etc, will stay in business, there is not very far from selling makerbot print-heads to selling print heads for all the similar printers being made just about now.
I suspect we will see more sites like makergear.com offering us all kids of solutions for fine-polishing our makerbots. and god knows mine being a series 5 bot needs all the help it can get.
Bo