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CES 2020 shows us what the end of the consumer 3D printing hype cycle looks like

CES 2020 shows us what the end of the consumer 3D printing hype cycle looks like

Written by David

January 24, 2020

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I think this article is far too pessimistic. It reminds me of the articles that said smartphones would never be more than a niche market. Your thoughts?

“We can safely say after 10 years of trying, the vision of consumers 3D printing products in their homes is dead. CES 2020 confirmed this for me, with 3D printing occupying a drab side-lined space hosting a handful of small, copy-cat Asian vendors. There is indeed a place for low-cost entry-level 3D printers and it’s on the desks of engineers and in the offices of start-ups, not on the dining tables of regular folk.

Why did consumer 3D printing die? For 70 years we have lived in a consumerist society where we are programmed to buy rather than make. Reversing this ethos is a generational undertaking.  Virtually all the products we buy are complex assemblies of multiple materials and composites, not single blocks of plastic.  But most importantly, there was never anything of value for consumers to print beyond plastic trinkets.  In short-many, of the products that consumers might want to make, such as a vase, set of shoes or children’s toy could arrive by same-day delivery faster than the time it would take to print. Not until desktop printers can produce functional products under an hour on machines priced in line with typical high-end kitchen appliances will we see consumers become makers, and that degree of technological capability is many decades away.”

CES is the annual barometer for what technologies we consumers should expect to see, use, and covet in the coming years. And as I explored this year’s show, I feared that 2001 A Space Odyssey was the inspiration for a lot of smart home technology, I was confused about how neuro-light masks are supposed to make me sleep more soundly, and I gained absolute confidence that consumer 3D printing, having enjoyed a decade at CES, won’t be around for the next one.

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What leads me to believe this is that the caliber and number of 3D printing exhibitors at this year’s show continues a stark downward trend of the last several years, with 3D printing vendors from incumbents to new-entrants moving away from entertaining consumers and toward catering for professionals.

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This year’s showing of consumer 3D printing shows us what the end of a hype cycle looks like. Consumer […]

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