The venerable PC maker DELL has signed a deal to resell 3D printers from not one, but two 3D printer manufacturers.
First we see they’ve signed a deal with Polish-based Zortrax, whom we haven’t heard from before. This is a curious deal in which DELL agreed to purchase 5,000 units. We are not able to see any Zortrax products on DELL’s online store at the moment. In any case, 5,000 units seems small for a volume-based company like DELL. It’s likely an experiment.
Secondly, DELL has also signed a deal with MakerBot to resell their equipment, too. We suspect MakerBot has substantially greater manufacturing capacity than Zortrax.
DELL has long sold accessories for PCs, including monitors, 2D printers, external disks and the like. It seems they now see 3D printers as a common PC accessory.
That’s a big change.
Via
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It`s all wrong Sir… That`s sad, because I consider your website as very influencial and worthy. Let`s go with each paragraph…
– "The venerable PC maker DELL has signed a deal to resell 3D printers from not one, but two 3D printer manufacturers." – no, they won`t. DELL will be selling MakerBots in their stores, but only in USA; Zortrax printers were bought by Dell Asia to equip DELL`s construction bureaus worldwide with theese machines. Zortrax won`t be reselled!
– "First we see they’ve signed a deal with Polish-based Zortrax, whom we haven’t heard from before. " – that`s sad, because they won Kickstarter funding last year with 179k $
– "This is a curious deal in which DELL agreed to purchase 5,000 units." – they are very good printers, so why so curious…?
– "We are not able to see any Zortrax products on DELL’s online store at the moment." – I`m affraid you won`t see them any soon, as I wrote it above…
– "It’s likely an experiment. " – why is that…?
-"We suspect MakerBot has substantially greater manufacturing capacity than Zortrax." – wrong again; MakerBot has it`s own production in USA and suffers troubles with production on-time; In other words: you have to wait for MakerBot products to get them; Zortrax has it`s own production in China, and is expected to put another set of 1500 printers to the market since March; and it doesn`t count Dell`s order
– "That’s a big change" – only with PR; how many stores Dell has in the USA? how many 3D printers is he going to sell with this channel? take a look at 3D Systems – they know how to make succesful business instead of Bre Pettis and Stratasys folks; they don`t go to computer stores, where nobody gives a chance of buying 3D printer – they go to biggest distribution companies like Staples, Office Depot, Jingdong Mall or AT&T, where the companies buy things, not common people…
Final words: I`m not from Zortrax, I just run similar website to yours in Poland. It was I who put this news about 5000 printers to Dell to the world. I know the details and the background of this deal. Once again, I have an enormous respect to your work in here Sir, I just wanted to put things straight.
Kind Regards
Pawel of CD3D