We always watch for 3D Hubs monthly report as it provides insight into use of 3D printing. But this month’s report includes some very interesting analyses.
They’ve taken a look at 3D printer crowdfunding campaigns. You’ll have to check out their post for the vast amount of detail, but we thought these specific findings were most interesting:
- 3D printer campaigns could pull in USD$10M this year. That’s an awful lot of cash, particularly for largely unproven devices.
- 20,000 units will be sold this year through crowdfunding. This is a large number, but likely dwarfed by the sales of existing manufacturers such as MakerBot, 3D Systems, Solidoodle, Ultimaker and Formlabs. It’s probably safe to say there could be several hundred thousand personal 3D printers sold this year.
- The analysis shows average delays broken down by size of crowdfunding. Evidently the longest shipping delays tend to be from companies who raised the most amount of money; whereas the least shipping delays occurred with the lowest funding raises. The conclusion seems clear: if you need to make a many more machines, it takes a lot longer.
One other interesting observation from their monthly report is the increase in “professional” machines. Earlier the 3D Hubs community was almost entirely composed of personal 3D printers, but now there seems to be a surge in high-priced professional gear, suggesting that industry has now discovered 3D Hubs. Some of these professional machines are likely small service bureaus looking to fill in the blanks on their 24/7 printing operations.
Please review the rest of their report, which is based on their almost-8,000 database of machines participating in their 3D printing network.
Via 3D Hubs
