Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
With a 3D printer, you could produce a thousand different covers as easily
as a thousand identical covers. You could offer a large variety of covers on your
website, and see what sells.
You might never sell some of the covers. You might sell only a few of some
of the others. Eventually you would learn which particular cover turned out
to be hit. That's the cover that would justify the investment.
A month later, you could repeat this experiment, eliminating those that
never sold and creating newer variations of those that did. Similar to Darwinian
evolution and natural selection, you could evolve your physical product in a
continuous process.
Such a process is only possible with the economy of scale offered by a 3D
printer—driven by low lead time and upfront investment. It's a new way to
quickly ind out what works and what doesn't, what sells and what doesn't,
and what improvements are needed and which aren't. It's all about quick
adaptation.
Variety can be a double-edged sword that needs to be used with caution.
As 3D printers open the door to offering a larger variety of physical products,
we may begin to experience a physical variety overload. Offering too many
options to customers can create an overload of choice.
Sex and entertainment
Small-batch production of custom products sold at premium prices, is ideal
for: the sex industry. Sex and porn fueled the growth of the early Internet. In
fact, some people argue that one of the biggest motivators behind the rapid
improvement of streaming video technology (and the VCR before that) was to
offer porn customers a better experience. Video gaming is another economic
giant. Some argue that gaming technologies are the key driver behind improve-
ments in graphics display technologies.
3D printing's effects may someday be felt in the sex and video gaming
industries. People don't want to admit it in front an audience, but frequently
after I speak, somebody tells a story about inding a rogue sex toy left behind
