Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

hugs.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

31–40 of 89 posts

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#31

Post by monochromatic »

argonaut wrote: post #20

Gee, thanks, Bre. Again, why do you think that's true? How did you come to that conclusion? What do you know that those of us still in the "fantasy world" don't know? Aha, that's it! MakerBot fell victim to the Osborne effect, where talking openly about future products hurt the sale of their current products. Sales dropped, so they got scared and went closed. That sounds like a way more honest and real answer than th…

My thoughts exactly. If the statements about open source hardware don't fit your worldview, just deride them and make up some other explanation!

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#32

Post by hugs »

monochromatic wrote: post #31
argonaut wrote: post #20

Gee, thanks, Bre. Again, why do you think that's true? How did you come to that conclusion? What do you know that those of us still in the "fantasy world" don't know? Aha, that's it! MakerBot fell victim to the Osborne effect, where talking openly about future products hurt the sale of their current products. Sales dropped, so they got scared and went closed. That sounds like a way more honest and real answer than th…

My thoughts exactly. If the statements about open source hardware don't fit your worldview, just deride them and make up some other explanation!

I didn't deride his statements because they didn't fit my worldview, I derided them for making no sense. He was the one that kept coming up with new explanations. His latest (which I quote in the post) is other-wise known as the Osborne effect.

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#35

Post by xenadu02 »

jjwiseman wrote: post #19

I'm curious to see how 3D Robotics handles a similar situation. Their drone platform has been open source hardware plus open source software. There are Chinese companies cloning the hardware and selling it for much cheaper than 3D Robotics sells it for. 3D Robotics just raised $50M in a series C. It will be interesting to see how their commitment to openness holds up.

What does that say about the idea of doing open hardware in general? You do all the work, some other manufacturer in China greatly undercuts you. How is that a good idea?

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#37

Post by monochromatic »

hugs wrote: post #32
monochromatic wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My thoughts exactly. If the statements about open source hardware don't fit your worldview, just deride them and make up some other explanation!

I didn't deride his statements because they didn't fit my worldview, I derided them for making no sense. He was the one that kept coming up with new explanations. His latest (which I quote in the post) is other-wise known as the Osborne effect.

Ok. But you blew off the main justification he gave for no sensible reason I can see. You just didn't like it, so you found some other explanation.

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#38

Post by xorcist »

xenadu02 wrote: post #35
jjwiseman wrote: post #19

I'm curious to see how 3D Robotics handles a similar situation. Their drone platform has been open source hardware plus open source software. There are Chinese companies cloning the hardware and selling it for much cheaper than 3D Robotics sells it for. 3D Robotics just raised $50M in a series C. It will be interesting to see how their commitment to openness holds up.

What does that say about the idea of doing open hardware in general? You do all the work, some other manufacturer in China greatly undercuts you. How is that a good idea?

How's that any different from pretty much any easily-copied business? How do Nike or Levi's survive, when pretty much any basement shop in China can undercut them on shoes and jeans?

The answer is your brand must must mean something. Be the domain expert. Be the one people turn to with questions. When the clones arrive, you are already ahead. That's easier said than done, and execution is everything and so on and so on. But there's not a vast difference between the open hardware space and other manufacturing businesses.

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#39

Post by gaius »

argonaut wrote: post #20

Gee, thanks, Bre. Again, why do you think that's true? How did you come to that conclusion? What do you know that those of us still in the "fantasy world" don't know? Aha, that's it! MakerBot fell victim to the Osborne effect, where talking openly about future products hurt the sale of their current products. Sales dropped, so they got scared and went closed. That sounds like a way more honest and real answer than th…

Agreed; this is a hit piece.

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#40

Post by snom320 »

Animats wrote: post #18

The MakerBot's problem is simply that low-end extruder-type 3D printers don't work very well.[1] They're easy to make, so there are lots of variations on that theme. TechShop has, over time, had one or two of all the major flavors. They're useful for making relatively thin parts, but anything taller than 3cm or so usually founders on the basic fact that ABS has too big of a coefficient of expansion to build something…

I'm not sure that's their main problem. Other companies are alive and well selling similar printers to customers that know what they buy.

I think MakerBots biggest problem is that they've marketed (and with Gen5, designed) their products as being "consumer ready" when they're far from it.

With the huge brand name of MakerBot, I can't help feel that this is going to create a setback for the 3D printer market. It's just sad.

Post reply on HN