Hasta La Gadget!

What if there was a way to enjoy a day at the beach no matter the season or weather outside? California-born artist Jonathan Schipper may have just come up with the perfect solution: An art installation inside a gallery featuring a hot tub standing in for the ocean, and tons of salt doubling as sand.

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3D printing remains a nascent market, despite high levels of hype around the technology’s potential — such as, most recently, news that astronauts will be using a 3D printer in space next year. The hype may be a little overblown but there’s no doubting the technology’s trajectory. Enter analyst Gartner with a new report, which predicts worldwide shipments of sub-$100,000 3D printers will grow 49% this year, to reach a total of 56,507 units.

That rate of growth is forecast to rise to 75% in 2014, fuelling shipments of 98,065 units. It’s the first time Gartner has put together a forecast for the sub-$100,000 3D printer market so that’s something of a rite of passage for the technology too.

“The 3D printer market has reached its inflection point,” said Pete Basiliere, research director at Gartner, in a statement. “While still a nascent market, with hype outpacing the technical realities, the speed of development and rise in buyer interest are pressing hardware, software and service providers to offer easier-to-use tools and materials that produce consistently high-quality results.”

“As the products rapidly mature, organisations will increasingly exploit 3D printing’s potential in their laboratory, product development and manufacturing operations,” he added. “In the next 18 months, we foresee consumers moving from being curious about the technology to finding reasons to justify purchases as price points, applications and functionality become more attractive.”

The analyst expects the price of 3D printers to be driven down by competitive pressures and higher shipment volumes over the next several years, helped by increasing numbers of large multinational retailers selling 3D printers through their physical and online stores. By 2015 it’s predicting seven of the 50 largest multinational retailers will do so.

“Office superstore Staples is already in the market, and other superstores and consumer goods retailers, such as Yamada Denki, are prime candidates to sell printers and finished 3D printed items. Their presence in the market will have an impact on average selling prices, forcing providers into low-margin sales of consumer 3DP by 2017,” Basiliere added.

Combined end-user spending on 3D printers is predicted to hit $412 million this year, up 43% from spending of $288 million in 2012. While the analyst expects spending to increase 62% next year, reaching $669 million. Gartner’s forecast shows enterprises continuing to dominate 3D printer purchases over the next few years, with enterprises spending more than $325 million in 2013 vs $87 million in the consumer segment; and $536 million in 2014 vs consumer spending of $133 million.

Gartner noted that current enterprise uses of 3D technology focus on “one-off or small-run models for product design and industrial prototyping, jigs and fixtures used in manufacturing processes and mass customisation of finished goods”. But as advances in 3D printers, scanners, design tools and materials reduce the cost and complexity of creating 3D printed items, it said applications of 3D printing technology will expand further — drawing in other areas such as “architecture, defence, medical products and jewellery design”.

The analyst expects 3D printers to have the biggest impact on industries, including consumer products, industrial and manufacturing, and a “medium impact” on construction, education, energy, government, medical products, military, retail, telecommunications, transportation and utilities. Low impact industries include banking and financial services and insurance.

“Most businesses are only now beginning to fully comprehend all of the ways in which a 3DP can be cost-effectively used in their organisations, from prototyping and product development to fixtures and moulds that are used to manufacture or assemble an item to drive finished goods,” said Basiliere.

And while earlier buyers of 3D printers will continue to be makers and hobbyists, rather than average consumers, Gartner reckons the former group will contribute to the development of a 3D printing ‘killer app’ — some form of “plug and play” tool — that will be key to driving consumer sales in future.  ”We expect that a compelling consumer application — something that can only be created at home on a 3D printer — will hit the scene by 2016,” Basiliere added.

Transporters aside, the replicators featured in Star Trek: The Next Generation were one of the most tantalizing pieces of future technology one could imagine—whatever you asked the computer for magically appeared before your eyes. And it looks like Yahoo has created a similar machine for students at a school for the visually impaired in Japan.

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3D printing has seen a significant rise in its popularity, though they’re not as common as your average printer. The main reason behind this is that 3D printers are expensive, an average unit might cost over $1,000. So even though everyone would like to use it, they won’t be able to because of the evident problem. 3D Hubs is a new service that fixes this issue to an extent. The service will display 3D printers that are available in your locality, you can upload your design and the owner can print it out. You can then meet the owner, pay a fee and pick up the printed object.

The service has been publicly launched today. Once users upload their design, they can choose the nearest 3D printer from an interactive map. The owner of the printer gets to work on a new project and make money as well. A “hub” is only unlocked once a specific number of printers are listed. For European cities, 10 3D printers must be listed before that particular city can be unlocked. For other locations, the magic number sits at 20. Cities unlocked so far include London, Amsterdam, Brussels, Antwerp and Copenhagen. Give the fact that 3D Hubs was launched today, it might take some time before your city gets unlocked. [Image via TNW]

3D Hubs Shows 3D Printers Available In Your Locality original content from Ubergizmo.

As new models are announced every week, 3D printers are slowly but steadily becoming as common as iPhone cases. But thankfully there are a few standouts that boast features other than a cheaper price tag, like the Zeus from AIO Robotics that’s set to premiere on Kickstarter in just a few weeks. It’s a 3D printer that doubles as a 3D scanner, allowing you to print, copy, and thanks to a built-in network connection, even fax 3D objects to another machine.

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