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3D printing still needs that "killer app" for consumers but making it more accessible is a great first step. cc'ing @Evanish who's well-versed in this space.

So every 3D Printer manufacturer is trying to claim they're the truly Consumer Printer. Pirate3D had the Buccaneer in June of last year and they sold millions of dollars worth and I see these guys have now. 3D Systems, a giant in the space, can also make some pretty good claims with their Cubify, which works over wifi and is very plug n play (although costs much more). It's all silly though since mainstream people aren't buying printers yet and those that have are either A) Still waiting for their Kickstarter B) Own a Makerbot that is rarely used or C) Have a broken printer that since they're not a hobbyist they lack the skills and passion to fix. It's nice to see them try to fix a lot of the existing problems of 3D printers although I wonder if they're really ready to manufacture the nearly 7,000 printers they suddenly need to make. Kickstarter is great, but it's a curse for these guys often as it's hard to make your first batch at that scale and have it come out well; imagine having a million users for Product Hunt on Day 1...the site wouldn't be ready for it. They've tried to stagger the sales month to month in the order but even making 2,500/month is a lot. Makerbot only has recently scaled to producing at that scale. Looking at this printer specifically, it's realllly small (4.6" high and a base of 3.3"x3.3"). That's going to severely limit use cases. They're planning to hand assemble the printers themselves, which is insane when you sell 7,000 printers. Trying to outsource manufacturing will make this printer ship in probably a year or later. I'm also really tired of every printer company saying,"We're for EVERYONE." That isn't a good idea for any product, so I don't think it should be an exception for 3D Printers.

This is cool because it's plug and play, and made in the USA. Other printers have focused on resolution and features, but like a GoPro if you make something that "just works" and is in the $200-300 price range, now the mainstream gets involved. I've preordered one!

Thanks for sharing your perspective, Jason. I knew you'd have good insights to share :)