In the spirit of the holidays, one can’t help but think about gift giving.
And while the mere thought of fighting the Black Friday crowds exhausts me, I’m not really interested in that angle. I’m more interested in 3-D printing.
3-D printers, like their 2-D counterparts, take raw material (usually plastic or resin instead of paper and ink) and create a custom mold that is an actual, real life object. You could print an action figure of yourself, or a replacement for that knob on the dryer, or scale model of the Talmadge Bridge.
But what does this have to do with Christmas?
First of all, 3-D printers are getting down into consumer price points. Some companies are offering these printers at prices below $500. That’s not quite into the general public gift-giving range just yet, but the prices will keep dropping, just like tablets and laptops. When 3-D printers are sub-$200, they’ll go mainstream in a hurry.
Secondly, once they’re widespread, you’ll be printing a lot of your gifts rather than going to the store to buy them. The first year you use your 3-D printer, you might only print a few gift cards and novelty bobblehead figures. But the second year, because of the advance in technology, you might print full Barbies or Transformers (or whatever kids are playing with in a few years).
This isn’t speculation. These 3-D printers are already in use around the world, printing car parts, iPhone cases, and anything that can be molded from plastic. As I said before, the real barrier today is price, but you can buy a 3-D printer today for less than the cost of a CD player in the 1980s. History tells us that cost will keep dropping.
The interesting part, at least to me, is that we will download the 3-D models for printing instead of buying things in retail stores. Think of it like an app store for things, or like Amazon.com except with zero shipping time. You simply see a lamp you want, press the ‘Buy’ button, and the printer starts printing your lamp.
Taking it a step further, since the content actually originates from digital files, there is a real piracy concern. Just like you can pirate music and movies, there’s a chance you’ll be able to pirate Ray Bans, Crocs, and Han Solo statues. Of course I’ve never, ever downloaded a song without paying for it, so I wouldn’t know anything about that.
3-D printers will be the hot, trendy Christmas gift in a few years, just like digital photo frames and Nintendo Wiis were in years past. It will be a fascinating shift from mass-market manufacturing to single-item, on-demand manufacturing, and it might just allow me to avoid Black Friday shopping altogether. Here’s hoping.
Jesse Bushkar is the CEO of Sysconn New Media Inc. He can be contacted at 912-356-9920 or jesse@sysconn.com.
