Fwd: [MakerBot] Re: Makerbot.com countdown?

[Luis E. Rodriguez]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: peterk <peter.ku...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Sep 18, 2012 at 7:50 PM
Subject: Re: [MakerBot] Re: Makerbot.com countdown?
To: make...@googlegroups.com


Hello Folks. 

I read the Wired Article.  Bre Pettis in full smirk on the cover.  Nice positive article about how they;re coming out with two machines.  That this is Makerbot's Macintosh moment.  Personally I think it's their Apple 2 moment.   

A store in Manhattan above Houston.  The two machines were priced 2200 and 2600 I think.  There was a single color one with a large build platform (2200) and a smaller with higher detail/speed and all PLA for better resolution.  Something close to that.  Also same issue an article about Autodesk entering the 3D Design CAD world with the 123D products.  

All your stockings will be stuffed tomorrow.  

I personally think the next important desktop 3d step will be on the input side.  Laser scanning for the hobbyist.

Thanks,

Peter K

On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 6:27:30 PM UTC-4, Jordan wrote:

link to pic with secondary link to video:

http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/connors934/4803485933/

jordan

On Sep 18, 2012, at 6:25 PM, Jordan Miller <jrd...@gmail.com> wrote:

looks like the makerwave zach demo'ed on youtube a couple years back

jordan

On Sep 18, 2012, at 6:23 PM, "JohnA." <john....@gmail.com> wrote:

We've known for a while that you could put a much wider build platform in a Replicator if you only ran one color - and it looks like this one has that in there.   Twice as wide?  Seems possible.   

JohnA.

On Tuesday, September 18, 2012 3:48:56 PM UTC-4, Laird Popkin wrote:

Judging by the Wired cover photo, the physical changes don't look too dramatic. It basically looks like a smaller Replicator with a black case, and a larger front cutout. They did obscure the extruder, so perhaps that's different? My guess is that the dramatic change is to the software or the pricing/business model.

There's some speculation on http://mike-ibioloid.blogspot.com/2012/09/is-this-makerbot-replicator-mark-2.html that I think are worth discussion.

The rumor that I am now hearing is that it is not open hardware or software now! Sounds like they are now going with the Apple model of hardware and software! The second rumor is that they are only going to sale B2B. No more selling to makers! They are only going to sell to other business. The third rumor is that there will be major changes with Thingiverse too!! 

My reactions:

- I can't imagine Makerbot not being open hardware and software. That's too fundamental a change.

- Only selling B2B would be odd given the state of the industry, but if they decided to work through dealers/resellers/VARs that would be a traditional way to grow the business. That is, rather than trying to sell only direct/mail order, or grow a large/expensive field presence, they could decide that they could grow their business through partnerships. If so, that would be a sign that the business is maturing and is growing into the mainstream, which would be a great thing! But if Makerbot could do deals to have a network of local dealers, that'd accellerate the 3D printing market's growth dramatically. Think of it as similar to how Apple's distribution deals and stores allow them to sell to many more customers than they could sell directly. Instead of dealers, how cool would it be to have Makerbot company stores, at least in a few major cities? It'd be a huge investment, so I wouldn't bet that's what they're doing, but it would certainly establish Makerbot in the lead of the mass market 3D printer movement. So while I don't buy "no more selling to Makers" - that would be too radical a change from their roots in the Maker community - but I could see them doing distribution deals, dealers, or company stores, to expand distribution and create a local support structure for customers.

- Major changes to Thingiverse? Sure, why not? I bet they're integrating "slicing" into the site, so Makerbot owners can download files to put on an SD card and print, so users who just want to find and print stuff can skip ReplicatorG, skeinforge, etc.

To expand on the last point, imagine that they integrate slicing into Tinkercad, so people can go there, find interesting things, and print them on a Replicator without any other software. Sure, some of us would want to do the fiddling, but it'd be nice not to have to. My daughters, for example, create amazing things on Tinkercad, but leave the slicing and printing to me, and if the site could do that work, they'd be happy doing what's left (modeling, download file to SD card, put card into printer, print).

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