There are considerable discounts being offered on Bambu Lab 3D printers. What’s going on?
One answer is that it’s Black Friday, and deals abound online, including for many 3D printers. But there may be a bit more to the story here.
Let’s do some comparisons of sale prices for selected Bambu Lab models at popular sources:
It seems that Bambu Lab has discounted the equipment at their own online store, and passed along similar discounts to their resellers. As you can see, the discounts passed on to customers varies by reseller and model.
Lower discounts from resellers seems to be at the lower end of the product range, where resellers make very little margin anyway. However, when purchasing the equipment from Bambu Lab directly, models like the A1 and A1 Mini seem to have ridiculously low price points that are very accessible.
Imagine a high-quality, multi-color 3D printer being available for only US$249? That’s unprecedented.
One could say this is all about Black Friday, but perhaps there is more to the story. Could it be that Bambu Lab is starting to move out inventory of these machines in order to make room for upcoming equipment?
We know that Bambu Lab has been working on a mysterious large format 3D printer, and that its release has been delayed until next year. While it’s likely this is due to product development timelines, it may also have something to do with Stratasys’ patent infringement lawsuit against the company, where the two parties have to take time to negotiate a licensing deal.
But that large format machine is almost certainly targeted at industry, not consumers that normally purchase the A1 and P1 series models.
We know that Bambu Lab is one of the leading sellers of 3D printers on the planet, with recent research indicating they occupy approximately 26% of the market share, and it’s growing fast. They don’t need to promote their equipment; it’s selling faster than anything else on the market.
This leads back to the spectacular deals available on their lower-end equipment. They shouldn’t have to discount these devices as much as they are doing. It’s quite possible they have been working on upgraded versions of the P1 and A1 series, and might be on the verge of launching them. A big Black Friday sale could clear out a lot of the inventory that would be worth a lot less after new equipment appears.
Why haven’t we heard much about a hypothetical A2 or P2 series, and instead have been hearing about a large format device? I believe it’s because operators are mostly satisfied with the existing equipment and just want a larger build volume.
However, there are ways to tweak the A1 and P1 designs to make them slightly better, and that could be what Bambu Lab is doing behind closed doors. These might be easier to develop than a larger machine with rumored special technologies.
Should you purchase one of the discounted Bambu Lab devices now, or wait for something later that might be better?
This is the classic technology question, and it deserves the classic answer: buy for what you need today, wait if you don’t need something right now.
Via Bambu Lab
