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for everyone. It all comes down to inding useful applications for 3D printers
that make people's lives better and easier.
“To solve customer problems, you have to look at application needs,” said
Cathy. “It's not just about 'let's create a machine that's faster and better.' It's
'let's create a machine that truly solves this problem that exists today.'”
The search for the killer app
Today consumer-level 3D printing technologies are in the “Altair phase.” In
the 1970s, the irst personal computers like the Altair were clumsy do-it-
yourself kits that their technically skilled users put together themselves at
home. With a few exceptions, most of the irst few thousand low-end printers
sold were patiently assembled and involved a lot of calibration and sometimes
troubleshooting.
When I spoke with Rajeev, he described one of the biggest barriers to main-
stream adoption of 3D printing: the absence of a killer app, or hugely popular
application. “Look at the iPad,” he said. “The tablet market was struggling before
the iPad came in. It was not the most technologically advanced product, but it
revolutionized the industry because it was simple, accessible, and easy to use. If
we focus on applications rather than technology, we have a much greater chance
of getting this technology adopted.”
A killer app—for example email, Facebook, and Angry Birds—is a product
or tool that creates new markets, new business models and lures customers
to a new technology. These particular killer apps attracted millions of new
customers to the personal computer, the Internet, and the iPad. To spawn its
own killer app, the 3D printing industry needs a user-friendly platform of
tools and an application or game whose mass appeal will create new markets
and attract millions of new users.
In part because of the absence of a killer app, the average consumer or small
business hasn't yet felt compelled to purchase a 3D printer for home or ofice
use. The market for 3D printing still lies in the manufacturing and design
industries. If the dollar value of the worldwide market for all 3D printers and
services is the volume of a ping-pong ball, the dollar value of the global market
for just consumer 3D printers and services would be even smaller, roughly
the size of a grain of rice.
Investment advisor the Motley Fool is bullish on the potential of companies
involved in the consumer 3D printing space. In contrast, analyst Terry Wohlers
