At 0:19 +0100 9/7/97, Kevin Robertson wrote:
>2) There have been a few postings regarding desk top modeling and the
>tremendous market potential that exists for such a product. If such a market
>exists wouldn't you be seeing major players such as Kodak, Xerox or Hewlett
>Packard creating these products?
The big multinationals don't do anything until they are sure there is a
market. In the case of a brand new technology like RP, the market is simply
not there. What large company is going to take on a technology whose total
worldwide revenue is less than Mattel's "Barbie Doll" product?
Unfortunately, the market has to be created by small companies, which get
taken over by the large ones when they are successful. As recent
announcements have shown, RP is far from being a successful business (for
the OEM's I mean, not the users). It's going to take many years before
you'll see franchised 3D copy centers, not because the technology isn't
there, but because people simply don't know how they could benefit from
them, and it will take time to spread the message. Plus, the service and
supply infrastructure is not yet in place. Large corporations as a rule
are not adventurous when it comes to innovation (see Microsoft), because
real novelty (i.e. changing people's work habits) requires too much work.
They prefer to let the small guys beat the path, because when the treasure
is in sight they can quickly step in and take over without blinking an eye.
For more information on future prospects, see Brock Hinzmann's Personal
Factory article, which is available somewhere on the Web.
___________________________________________________
Yakov Horenstein, Marketing
Promau Engineering srl
155, Strada per Novara
28062 Cameri (NO), ITALY
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