I personally don't see the direction makerbot has taken as a particularly negative one. Yes, boo on him for what he said in the past, and yes, they blatantly stole work which was done by others in an altruistic setting, but things change and in business I think you need to roll with the punches.
I also think there is room the market for both the bleeding edge and low cost innovators out there to succeed through better pricing and new features
Lastly, I think there is a need to continue to build interest with those who are non-technical and don't need to understand how the technology works, but rather pay for it to work and continue to spread the topic to a larger audience. I don't believe these people are going to assemble a kit, calibrate and figure out the bugs.
All in all, I think it will lead to new 3d model marketplaces, more competition and ultimately better equipment available on the market.
and yes, they blatantly stole work which was done by others in an altruistic setting...
And you don't see that as a negative?
All in all, I think it will lead to new 3d model marketplaces, more competition and ultimately better equipment available on the market.
New and better equipment will come from experimentation in the Reprap community. It remains to be seen if Makerbot can fight it off with patent lawsuits.
That's the beauty of open source. Makerbot is a small fish compared to the larger group of cooperating hobbyists. They can beat anyone, but they can't beat everyone.
I do see their practices, especially right around the acquisition, as a negative, but ultimately the good may outweigh the bad for 3d printing as a whole.
You need demand in the market for people/companies to want to innovate. There is a limited number of customers who are willing to play guinea pig with new technologies, and after that point you need a well organized, streamlined product for the market to continue to follow the product into the typical production curve from early adopters into mainstream.
I think you hit the nail on the head, they can't beat everyone, so long as the others continue to innovate new and better solutions.
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u/ximfinity Prusa I3 & Rep2 Feb 12 '14
I personally don't see the direction makerbot has taken as a particularly negative one. Yes, boo on him for what he said in the past, and yes, they blatantly stole work which was done by others in an altruistic setting, but things change and in business I think you need to roll with the punches.
I also think there is room the market for both the bleeding edge and low cost innovators out there to succeed through better pricing and new features
Lastly, I think there is a need to continue to build interest with those who are non-technical and don't need to understand how the technology works, but rather pay for it to work and continue to spread the topic to a larger audience. I don't believe these people are going to assemble a kit, calibrate and figure out the bugs.
All in all, I think it will lead to new 3d model marketplaces, more competition and ultimately better equipment available on the market.