A few years ago at CES, 3D printing was still in its infancy and companies experimenting with the technology were few and far between. This year, there's a whole section of the show dedicated to 3D printing, and the press conference held by MakerBot -- one of the first 3D printing companies to register on our radars -- was a subject of much interest.
Makerbot really grabbed our attention two years ago now when it introduced the Replicator printer. Fast forward to 2013 and the company has just announced three new 3D printers that represent the
fifth generation of its products.
Most attention-grabbing of the lot is the MakerBot Replicator Mini, which at $1,375 (£839) is the company's cheapest printer to date. Its launch is a step towards the revolution MakerBot is hoping will see 3D printers increasingly infiltrate the home, rather than just the industrial space. The Mini has been designed with beginners and pros alike in mind, and is supposedly as simple to use as a point-and-shoot camera.
MakerBot has also introduced a new Replicator Desktop for $2,908 (£1,772), as well as the Replicator Z18 for $6,499 (£3,960), which is designed to cope with a much bigger build volume. The Replicator Desktop is available for order now, with the Mini and the Z18 due to ship in the spring.
Accompanying the printers are three new MakerBot apps. The first, MakerBot Desktop, is a free app that makes it easy for you to discover, manage and share designs. MakerBot Mobile, meanwhile, allows you to remotely control and manage your Replicator from your phone. The third app, MakerBot PrintShop, is described as "a fun, easy, and free way to create and 3D print all kinds of cool things", and presumably provides a range of creative tools to print simple designs.
Prices are still high for 3D printers and the technology probably needs to further establish itself within the public consciousness and prove its value in the home before consumer sales really start to take off. It's possible to that publicly available 3D printing services, such as the trial offered last year in an Asda store, may well also in the future negate the need for people to own their own hardware.
It's a trend we'll be keeping a close eye on.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
