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What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

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Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#41

Post by xorcist »

hyperpallium wrote: post #14
orionblastar wrote: post #2

The Osborne effect whee announcing a future product before it is made way too early cancels sales of the current project. People forget when Osborne was losing sales, the IBM PC and PC-DOS was gaining sales and CP/M systems like those made by Osborne had a lot of competition. Microsoft/IBM had a converter program that could convert CP/M-80 programs to DOS programs. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oldnewthing/archive/2015/04/…

And Osbourne probably preannounced so early because of the competition (to pre-empt users switching). Preannouncement and failure were correlated due to a common cause. OTOH MS vapourware has scuttled competitors. So it depends on your market power. Osbourne was against IBM and a disruptive tide.

Also Intel with Itanium.

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#42

Post by jacquesm »

empressplay wrote: post #33
gonzo wrote: post #9

Personally, I'm wondering how many on HN actually owned an Osborne machine.

I still have one! Flyback is shot on the CRT though =(

Heat and vibration rubbing the coil wires against each other is what kills flyback transformers, you can usually get replacements for about $50 or so and replacing them isn't hard.

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#43

Post by Jack000 »

I think they would have been fine had they shipped a better product. When I was doing research to buy a 3d printer every review I read said that the closed source metal version was every bit as unreliable as the previous plywood laser cut makerbot.

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#44

Post by fit2rule »

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 think Aurora Labs are still working hard (iterating) on their design to get the costs down and will have something to show, shortly ..

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#45

Post by fit2rule »

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?

This is a natural consequence of having contributed to a society where China does all the work, anyway.

Either beat China at the manufacturing game, or continually be side-swiped by Chinese manufacturers.

Alas, no amount of open source anything is going to assist with that challenge ..

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#46

Post by makomk »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #17

The challenge of being an open source hardware manufacturer in the presence of an economy that is better suited to create hardware than you are (China in this case) is that you really have to execute well. I agree it was a huge mistake on Bre's part to leak the upcoming Rep 2. Without incoming orders you have to fund current orders and R&D out of cash on hand, and that doesn't work without a big line of credit. But i…

The trouble with MakerBot isn't just that they're a US open source hardware manufacturer in a world where China is better economically suited to making hardware, it's that their business model is based around taking other people's openly-available R&D and designs and turning them into products. Which means that they have nothing to compete on other than patriotism when Chinese companies do the same for less.

For example, I believe MakerBot changed their extruder design for one that was suspciously similar to something one of the Chinese manufacturers came up with. Then their parent company Stratasys sued that company to stop them selling their printers, claiming the extruder infringed a patent of theirs via some, errm, creative interpretation of the patent claims. Buying MakerBot printers doesn't even help fund the companies that do the original R&D - it helps fund someone that's trying to sue them out of business.

Their printers are not cheap, not reliable and not even all that original, so why would you buy them?

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#47

Post by sleepychu »

deleterious wrote: post #30

Did no one see "Print the Legend" on Netflix. Pretty well discusses this matter in detail. It also deals with funding a new business and the various pitfalls.

It was discussed in the article but the author didn't find the answer given in the documentary convincing.

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#48

Post by FreakyT »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #17

The challenge of being an open source hardware manufacturer in the presence of an economy that is better suited to create hardware than you are (China in this case) is that you really have to execute well. I agree it was a huge mistake on Bre's part to leak the upcoming Rep 2. Without incoming orders you have to fund current orders and R&D out of cash on hand, and that doesn't work without a big line of credit. But i…

> I am convinced that their lack of openness lead directly to the C.F. that is their "SmartStruder" which now has people calling for class action lawsuits.

What is the story of this? (I tried searching for "SmartStruder class action" and all I found was this particular comment.)

Re: What doomed MakerBot? The Osborne effect

#49

Post by saalweachter »

fixxer wrote: post #22
ChuckMcM wrote: post #17

The challenge of being an open source hardware manufacturer in the presence of an economy that is better suited to create hardware than you are (China in this case) is that you really have to execute well. I agree it was a huge mistake on Bre's part to leak the upcoming Rep 2. Without incoming orders you have to fund current orders and R&D out of cash on hand, and that doesn't work without a big line of credit. But i…

Seconded regarding his cover on popsci. You have to admire his knack for self promotion.

I don't think it's entirely self promotion.

Despite their looming fall and whether or not you feel betrayed by the switch to closed-source, IMO MakerBot played an important role in turning 3D printing from "a thing in movies and high-end research labs" to "a thing hobbyists and consumers could do". Their place in history may not be as large as they would have liked, but it's definitely there.

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