*If the maestro says that his fabrication scene is booming, I see no reason to doubt him.
http://www.dezeen.com/2012/10/21/printing-products-at-home-cheaper-than-shopping/
(...)
Marcus Fairs: “We first met in Milan nine years ago, at the first Freedom of Creation show.”
Janne Kyttanen: “Nine years ago, yeah.”
Marcus Fairs: “That was the first time I’d seen objects that had any design sensibility that had been made using 3D printing techniques. Tell us about that adventure and what’s happened to you and what’s happened to 3D printing in the last nine years.”
Janne Kyttanen: “When I started everything was very, very expensive so it was very difficult to get the whole thing going. My dream was always to start an industry instead of designing individual products. So I think the first five, six, seven years were extremely difficult both financially and in terms of having people believe in the vision. Only in the last three years things have exponentially started moving forward to an industry that I always envisioned. And especially the last year. It’s going great.”
Marcus Fairs: “And why has it suddenly taken off in the last two or three years?”
Janne Kyttanen: “There’s some [3D printing] patents that have run out and of course there’s now massive awareness towards the whole story; and to be honest the pricing. You can [print] normal household products, like this iPod Nano holder for example, which costs two Euros to make. So why go buy something when you could just make your own things?” (((Oh dear.)))
Marcus Fairs: “You mentioned patents expiring. So companies that had the patents for these manufacturing technologies were preventing it from being widely taken up?”
Janne Kyttanen: “That happens in any technology. Once restrictions are removed, the bigger crowd starts to flourish.”
Marcus Fairs: “Freedom Of Creation is now owned by 3D Systems. Tell us about that merger, that takeover, and tell us about the company you now work for.”
Janne Kyttanen: “That happened about a year and a half ago. We’ve been talking for a number of years about how I always envisioned that the consumer world would be the final frontier for this type of adventure. They had something that I needed: technology, software, finance and a whole bunch of people running in the same direction. I had of course 12 years of valuable content that we can just quickly get going, instead of them getting other designers or buying somewhere else to get it going. So it was for me a match made in heaven.”
Marcus Fairs: “And they’re a company that makes 3D printing machines?”
Janne Kyttanen: “Yeah."...
