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3D Printing: Consumers on the Side Lines for Now
Know anyone who’s using 3D printing? While the commercial uses for 3D printing have been relatively impressive, consumers haven’t yet jumped in. Gartner now predicts that 3D printing won’t become a popular consumer item for another five or ten years. As of yet, it just hasn’t been practical for everyday use. Over the next two to five years, most of the activity will be dominated by commercial projects.
Pete Basiliere, research vice president at Gartner, said that “consumer 3D printing is around five to 10 years away from mainstream adoption. Today, approximately 40 manufacturers sell the 3D printers most commonly used in businesses, and over 200 startups worldwide are developing and selling consumer-oriented 3D printers, priced from just a few hundred dollars. However, even this price is too high for mainstream consumers at this time, despite broad awareness of the technology and considerable media interest.”
Basiliere told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that 3D printing in the home is ‘ridiculous’ at this point. “3-D printing of pizza and food is really not going to happen anytime soon. Certainly there are companies like Barilla that are looking at this, but now it is more a case of riding the wave of 3d printing and the interest in it. It’s not to say that this isn’t important. Because this is how we move from early stage, or hype, to practical applications.”
