2014년 3월 30일 일요일

New MakerBot 3D Printers...and Competitors!


 


 


 

     New MakerBot’s 3D printers are now being shipped as the Replicator the Fifth Generation is now on sale. The MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer is in $2,899. This product is characterized as easy and fast printing. It has 3.5-inch full color LCD display with a user-friendly interface. The printer is accessible through desktops, mobile applications, USB stick, and USB Cable. Even connection through Wi-Fi is available. The product also has smart features such as cloud connection; that is, the printer can automatically take reference pictures of final prints and save them to the personal cloud storage. Moreover, even if the volume (456 cubic inches) increased by 11% from the last model, the speed of printing became quicker than ever. The company also introduced a miniature version of it, called the MakerBot Replicator Mini. The cost is cheaper ($1,375), but it contains most of the features that the regular version has. The mini version is, however, extremely small (length and width of 4-inch) and more for entertaining and educational purpose. On the other hand, MakerBot is also receiving preorders for the larger verson (2,592 cubic inches) called the MakerBot Replicator Z18, pricing $6,499.

 

To understand the products better, we should know about MakerBot. MakerBot Industries is a pioneer in desktop 3D printing. The company consists of engineers, entrepreneurs, and those who enjoy making things. Its products are earning the reputation as they were chosen as Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2012, Popular Mechanics “Overall Winner” for best 3D printer, and Fast Company 2012 Innovation by Design Awardee. This Brooklyn, New York-based company was founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach Hoeken Smith.

MakerBot has been improving its products in a unique way from its first kit of 3D printers, the Cupcake CNC to its present model, MakerBot Replicator. The Cupcake CNC was introduced in March 2009, and the company did not hide the source of this small 3D printer, allowing others to build their own version. This strategy successfully gained many suggestions from users; through this process, the company has produced MakerBot Replicator.

 

Despite MakerBot has hugely contributed to the 3D printing industries, it is now facing inevitable competitors. MakerBot Industries first introduced its 3D printers in CES 2010, and it was the only company that exhibited a 3D printer. The same happened in CES 2011. In CES 2014, many companies such as RepRap, Cube, Solidoodle, Bits from Bytes(BFB), Botmill, uPrint, and HP are the big competitors of MakerBot Industries. HP recently declared a pricing war in the 3D printing industry: "3D printers have had a reputation for being pricey, being a new technology that's been primarily aimed at the enterprise. According to Whitman in October, HP wants to bring the technology to people at a lower price point." As 3D printing industry will become more popular, even more companies will compete in the industry.

  However, MakerBot’s products have an innovative design in my opinion. Moreover, the specification of the recent printers shows the quick improvement. As a result, its printers are comparatively high-quality. Overall, I found the MakerBot Industries as a very potential company. The only problem that I see is too many competitors are jumping into 3D printing industry; that is, some competitors will soon close the gap of the quality of printers, as Samsung did for Apple. If only MakerBot can make a difference from other competitors such as in marketing, I believe MakerBot can soon become one of the biggest companies in the world.

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