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Gartner Estimates Home 3D Printer Shipments Will Grow 49% This Year
While I’m wary of analyst reports that offer exact figures, Gartner expects 56,507 sub-$10,000 3D printers to ship in 2013, a 49 percent jump over last year. They also expect 98,065 units sold in 2014 and double that in 2015. Their report, however ridiculous, still points to one important thing: that 3D printing is now on Gartner’s radar and that they expect the market to grow considerably.
This is no surprise. Given the rise of “cheap” printers flooding the market and improved home-brew and DIY models, I’d expect shipments to hit at least 100,000 by 2016. Because these printers are perfect for home hobbyists and students and because you can now get a fairly rudimentary printer for around $500, there is no reason not to outfit a high school lab, home workshop, or dorm room with a 3D printer to go next to the 2D printer.
Gartner offered a bit of blar-de-blar to back up their claims.
Because Gartner is now paying closer attention to the space, however, expect investors to do the same. Companies like Makerbot have already proven that 3D printing is a lucrative and solid business and many 3D printing companies offer a perfect storm of buzzwords in their business plan – open, popular, innovative, and, most important, profitable.
Will 3D printing grow from “$288 million to more than $5.7 billion by 2017″ as Gartner claims? Sure, why not. Asian manufacturers are already pumping out simple 3D printers en masse using the same techniques used to make PC cases and most deposition-type printers are quite simple – an extruder and some rails are all you need to make a working PLA printer, for example. However I doubt that the big players will figure out how to break into the 3DP business. Could Dell ever make a printer, for example? I doubt it. They may rebadge and sell someone elses’, but I see it as a strange fit for them.
That said, good on Gartner for amping up 3D hype with its report. Where analysts go investment follows and I can only begin to imagine what the future looks like for home printing.
Brent Hoberman, Christophe Maire And Reshma Sohoni To Speak At Disrupt Europe In Berlin
Are you ready? TechCrunch Disrupt Europe is coming to Berlin in late October (26-29), featuring some of the biggest names and hottest startups in Silicon Valley alongside those in the European scene. Check out who we have so far. Joining them will be three of the key people that make the tech startup engine in Europe sing and hum, namely, Christophe Maire, Brent Hoberman and Reshma Sohoni. You’d better grab a ticket now.
Brent co-founded PROfounders Capital, an early stage fund backed by entrepreneurs for digital entrepreneurs. He is also chairman and founded VC-backed internet based startup, mydeco, the online interiors site that aims to revolutionise the way we shop and design for our homes. mydeco.com is one of the UK’s leading interior design websites and has launched in the US. mydeco, Jaina Capital and PROfounders teamed up to launch made.com, of which Brent is chairman. made.com is a direct from factory consumer homewares retailer in the UK. Prior to mydeco, Brent co-founded lastminute.com in April 1998. He was CEO from its inception and the team took the company to profit and gross bookings of over $2bn. lastminute.com acquired 14 businesses after the IPO to supplement the annual growth of the core brand which was over 100% from 1998 to 2004. In 2005 lastminute.com was sold to Sabre for $1.1bn. Brent’s leading industry role has been recognised by several organisations – these include: Time Magazine’s “Top 25 European digital leaders,” Revolution’s “Internet Person of the Year” and the Institute of Travel Tourism (ITT) “Travel Business Person of the Year.” Brent is a Governor of University of the Arts College, London and a non-executive board director of Guardian Media Group, TalkTalk plc and Time Out Group. He is also a YGL.
Christophe has many years experience as founder and CEO of technology ventures. He founded and led gate5 AG, a Berlin-based pioneer in mobile mapping & community software for 7 years before selling the company to Nokia in summer 2006. He was previously Managing Director of one of Europe’s largest digital media production and visual effect venture, raising equity from Bertelsmann, Vivendi and Deutsche Telekom (70 m euros total funding). He also initiated CyberCinema, the first European network of electronic cinema venues. He started is career in Japan as innovations manager for Japanese group TOTO. Christophe holds board positions in German media & film production companies (Greenlight Media, Pallas Film). He was involved in early web 2.0 ventures, (e.g. Plazes, StudiVZ, Imedo, Autoki, TooStep, Bookpac) as an early stage investor and/or board member. A Swiss citizen, he studied business & Administration at the University of St.Gallen and attended executive education in NYU and Stanford Graduate School of Business.
As Partner, Reshma co-manages Seedcamp which aims to provide a catalyst for Europe’s next generation of entrepreneurs through the provision of seed capital and a world class network of mentors. Her investment focus is on B2B, Fashion, Gaming, Travel, and Financial Services. Reshma helped found Seedcamp in 2007. During her tenure, she has managed companies like Mobclix (acquired by Velti), Zemanta, and Ubervu. Reshma was also on the board of Zoombu before it was acquired by Skyscanner and advises Launch48. She joined Seedcamp from the Venture team at 3i. Prior to 3i, Reshma spent over 3 years at Vodafone in their Commercial Strategy team, working across the Europe and Japan footprints in marketing strategy and pricing functions. Her venture capital career started with eVentures India where she actively supported companies like Make My Trip (NASDAQ – MMYT), Contest2Win, and Clubgreetings. Reshma started her career in the US in investment banking with Broadview (now part of Jefferies). She has a MBA from INSEAD and dual undergraduate degrees in Engineering and Business from the University of Pennsylvania. She is also on the Advisory Board of Credo Ventures and the European Board of All Hands a non-profit organization that provides hands-on assistance to survivors of natural disasters around the world.
During Disrupt we’ll have a “Startup Alley” where companies can chat to the passing VCs, media and delegates about what they do.
To get an idea of it check out these videos from one of the days at our most recent Disrupt event, in New York, or this video with clips from other Alleys past.
You can apply for a spot by emailing StartupAlley@techcrunch.com or see the price points here.
Disrupt Europe will take place from October 26-29 (Hackathon on 26-27; Main Event on 28-29) and there is lots more info here.
If you would like information on sponsorship opportunities, please contact our sponsorship team here sponsors@techcrunch.com or get more info here.
IBM Acquires Xtify, A Mobile Messaging Company
IBM has announced the acquisition of Xtifty, a provider of mobile messaging tools that allows push notifications to reach customers. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The company’s platform leverages a company’s CRM environment, business rules and other data to do targeted campaigns. It offers the capability to target campaigns with scheduled messages, according to the time zones, frequency and a host of other factors. Marketers can create messages on the platform with an HTML editor, use dynamic fields for personal messaging and manage badges for rewarding customers.
Xtify, founded in 2009, will become part of the IBM Smart Commerce group and will target chief marketing officers and the new ecosystem of digital marketing managers and developers.
IBM makes a lot of money from its smarter commerce group. It has made more than $3.5 billion in acquisitions since 2010.
Interestingly, Xtify will be delivered through SoftLayer, the infrastructure as a service provider it acquired last June.
IBM’s move shows the new focus that vendors are putting on marketing organizations. Mobile messaging and marketing is tied to this strategy. Companies like Salesforce are focusing much of their efforts on developing marketing strategies, seeing opportunity in the full transformation from traditional marketing techniques to full-digital marketing experiences.
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