Reference no: EM132987147

MakerBot Industries, LLC is an American desktop 3D printer manufacturer company headquartered in New York City. 

MakerBot was initially successful due to its open-source attitude. Open-source software, hardware, and consumables were used in their offerings. To launch and gain traction, MakerBot used an open platform strategy. Makerbot can lead the growth of the personal manufacturing industry by its service. It must become the standard for the personal manufacturing sector if the company is to grow in the future. They need to add more services to this platform, similar to what other firms like Shapeways have done. They should concentrate on developing comprehensive APIs and interfaces that will allow other companies to build services. Through focused possibilities, Markebot should also focus on enterprise customers. Design engineers and business analysts are looking for ways to prototype and build things quickly. MakerBot's offerings are ideal for this market and should be taken advantage of. I believe they should consider teaming with design software companies to integrate some of these features into the design workflow.

Makerbot, as noted in the lawsuit, used a rigorous, iterative design process in which mistakes were made and corrected. This culture resulted in rapid product improvements. Their open innovation policy made this possible. Another important factor was the most prevalent 3D printing technology, Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), which was patented by Stratasys, a professional 3D printer company. To get started, this sector relied on open-source innovation and collaboration among existing companies to get it adopted by fans and eager tinkerers. MakerBot should consider migrating some of its goods and services away from open-source architecture in order to support new 3D printing applications.

Question : What is the threat from established players?

Are makers a big enough market to drive growth and realize the potential of the technology?