MakerBot's bold bet that 3D printers would become common
This gets the current state of 3D printers half right. I wrote the same thing seven months ago <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;hackaday.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;04&#x2F;28&#x2F;the-makerbot-obituary&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;hackaday.com&#x2F;2016&#x2F;04&#x2F;28&#x2F;the-makerbot-obituary&#x2F;</a>, and yes, the downfall of Makerbot was due to going closed source and shipping faulty &#x27;smart&#x27; extruders.<p>However, the author gets it completely wrong by not looking at any of the other companies shipping reprap designs. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lulzbot.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lulzbot.com&#x2F;</a> has seen consistent yearly growth, from tens of thousands a month when the first MakerBots came out to tens of millions per month today. <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;prusaprinters.org&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;prusaprinters.org&#x2F;</a> is experiencing the same growth, and that&#x27;s despite an obscene number of clones of their machine on the market. The growth of 3D printing never stopped. If you look at the well-respected companies in the field, they&#x27;re seeing consistent, increasing revenue.<p>The trouble with the industry is Makerbot. They burned their community with the change to closed source, they killed their industrial&#x2F;educational market with the Smart Extruder problems, <i>but</i> they were the darling of the media. When Makerbot laid off employees, it made headlines. When manufacturing was outsourced to China, tech bloggers stumbled over themselves to get a post out. As Makerbot went south, so went the perception of the industry.<p>3D printing is still a growing industry, and the tech in low-end printers is getting really, really good. It&#x27;ll never be a printer on every desk, but if you find a household with a circular saw or a soldering iron, you&#x27;ll probably also find a 3D printer. That&#x27;s what it should be, anyway: a tool, and not a fetishized technology.