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Why Prusa is floundering, and how you can avoid their fate

drewdevault.com

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Re: Why Prusa is floundering, and how you can avoid their fate

#11

Post by riddley »

The author starts out discussing licenses and by the fourth paragraph has jumped to the standard "I've never used a prusa, but here's why they suck" talking points and then at the end of the article even points out that the license talk has nothing to do with their assertions.

> Prusa responded to this certainty by not diversifying their business model whatsoever. There has only ever been one Prusa product: their latest 3D printer model.

https://blog.prusa3d.com/prusa-pro-our-industrial-product-li... https://blog.prusa3d.com/printables-store_87810/ https://blog.prusa3d.com/printables-clubs-are-live-you-can-n... https://blog.prusa3d.com/trilabs-industrial-3d-printers-one-...

These are just the first few pages of their blog, I could go on.

> Or, you can buy an Ender 3 off Amazon right now for $180 and you’ll get better than half of the value of an Mk4 at an 85% discount.

It's difficult to assume that the author is communicating in good faith when one reads something as obviously wrong as this. If you can't spot the difference between a Ender 3 and an MK4, you shouldn't be writing about 3d printers.

> Prusa’s naive strategy is causing their position to fall like a rock.

Are Prusa's financials available somewhere that I'm not aware of? They seem to be doing fine considering they can't make printers fast enough to keep up with demand.

Re: Why Prusa is floundering, and how you can avoid their fate

#12

Post by rjbwork »

TimMeade wrote: post #10

I think this is missing a little context. I believe Prusa and to some extent the older market leader Creality were sideswiped by a better product. A group of engineers got together and formed Bambu Labs. Their printer are all less than 2 years on market and they have become the new standard for the simple fact they just work. 3d Printing historically has been "early adopter". I'm long term tech. It took me a month of…

Yeah I got into 3d printing a few years ago to start a side business for a niche hobby, got a nicer Creality CR-10S, I think it was. Endless hours tinkering with the thing, and still could only get nice solid prints like half the time. I just don't have the patience to deal w/ stuff like that anymore as I've gotten older. I just want something that works OOTB.

I think in the next few years if I get back into it I'll get one of the prosumer fully enclosed ones with an exhaust vent.

Re: Why Prusa is floundering, and how you can avoid their fate

#13

Post by drewdevault »

Palomides wrote: post #6

>Imagine a Prusa where it works out of the box, you can fire up a slicer in your browser which auto-connects to your printer and prints models from a Prusa-operated model repository, paying $10 for a premium model, $1 off the top goes to Prusa, with the same saved payment details which ensure that a fresh spool of Prusa filament arrives at your front door when it auto-detects that your printer is almost out. The prin…

It need not be predatory, nor need it be mandatory for users to take advantage of these features, nor need it be proprietary or non-free.

Re: Why Prusa is floundering, and how you can avoid their fate

#14

Post by mytailorisrich »

TimMeade wrote: post #10

I think this is missing a little context. I believe Prusa and to some extent the older market leader Creality were sideswiped by a better product. A group of engineers got together and formed Bambu Labs. Their printer are all less than 2 years on market and they have become the new standard for the simple fact they just work. 3d Printing historically has been "early adopter". I'm long term tech. It took me a month of…

That's exactly the point of the article. Chinese competitors have better, more diversified products and sell them cheaper as well while Prusa failed to diversify and to keep up:

"Chinese manufacturers did all of this and more, and they’re winning. They aren’t just cheaper – they offer an outright better product. These are not cheap knock-offs"

Re: Why Prusa is floundering, and how you can avoid their fate

#15

Post by sersi »

ricardobeat wrote: post #7
xrd wrote: post #4

I find this really fascinating as my company has several products and we've been considering for years whether open source is a better direction than what we are doing now, which is to sell closed source software to enterprises. Needless to say, this is a very different market than the one Prusa is attacking, but I've still got opinions. I find it interesting that this comes the day after Xmas. My house was already c…

If all you took away is “cheap plastic from China” and that they should have gone for low cost, you haven’t paid enough attention while reading this article. It talks about building a better product and investing in the experience and ecosystem, which the chinese alternatives have done. We are about to witness the same thing happening to cars very soon.

It's been interesting seeing this happen in multiple industries. Hifi is one of them, companies like Topping, Fiio, etc.. make great products for a fraction of the cost of previously well-known Japanese or western companies and have the measurements to prove it.

Robot vaccuum cleaners are the same, we went from irobot being the best to being eclipsed by companies like Roborock or Dreame (although given privacy issues, I'd get something can be rooted)

Re: Why Prusa is floundering, and how you can avoid their fate

#17

Post by hobs »

xrd wrote: post #4

I find this really fascinating as my company has several products and we've been considering for years whether open source is a better direction than what we are doing now, which is to sell closed source software to enterprises. Needless to say, this is a very different market than the one Prusa is attacking, but I've still got opinions. I find it interesting that this comes the day after Xmas. My house was already c…

If you read the article the contents are pretty much 1) Prusa screwed themselves. 2) The chinese products are materially better and cheaper in every way.

If you want to print crap out of your 3d printer you're totally allowed, but most people I know print useful and interesting tools and additions to their home that make things easier.

Re: Why Prusa is floundering, and how you can avoid their fate

#18

Post by riddley »

ricardobeat wrote: post #7
xrd wrote: post #4

I find this really fascinating as my company has several products and we've been considering for years whether open source is a better direction than what we are doing now, which is to sell closed source software to enterprises. Needless to say, this is a very different market than the one Prusa is attacking, but I've still got opinions. I find it interesting that this comes the day after Xmas. My house was already c…

If all you took away is “cheap plastic from China” and that they should have gone for low cost, you haven’t paid enough attention while reading this article. It talks about building a better product and investing in the experience and ecosystem, which the chinese alternatives have done. We are about to witness the same thing happening to cars very soon.

The trouble is, the author doesn't at any point discuss what makes the products better. They just claim they are as if initial cost is the only factor.

Re: Why Prusa is floundering, and how you can avoid their fate

#19

Post by drewdevault »

riddley wrote: post #11

The author starts out discussing licenses and by the fourth paragraph has jumped to the standard "I've never used a prusa, but here's why they suck" talking points and then at the end of the article even points out that the license talk has nothing to do with their assertions. > Prusa responded to this certainty by not diversifying their business model whatsoever. There has only ever been one Prusa product: their lat…

Author here. I have used Prusas, as well as many other 3D printers. I know how they are distinguished from the rest. The thing is, there really isn't much of a difference between an Ender 3 and a Mk4 that a typical consumer (that is, not an enthusiast) would understand as justifying the bigger price tag. The Mk4 is a better printer, by a long shot, but not by the same factor as the price tag. The Mk4 price completely eliminates Prusa from the entry- to mid-level market which is a big lost opportunity when new enthusiasts are learning on other brands -- and by the time they want to upgrade to a Mk4 price-point, they have much, much better options than Prusa and brand loyalty to someone else. Prusa is not the right choice at any price point anymore and has little to no market relevance left, except maybe among a certain niche of enthusiasts.

Re: Why Prusa is floundering, and how you can avoid their fate

#20

Post by ralusek »

Watch Naomi Wu on YouTube. Look beyond her jarring aesthetic, and you’ll get to see the process of building something from idea to prototype and even production in China, specifically Shenzhen.

It genuinely makes me happy that a place like that exists, but sad that there doesn’t seem to be any place like it anywhere else; certainly not in the west.

If you wanted to build a 3D printer from scratch, they have what are functionally large indoor malls selling every component you could possibly need. The people at these shops all know their stuff, and the whole place is just buzzing with genuine makers. And for production it seems as though everyone knows someone with a machine shop and an injection molding setup.

For all of the talk of China’s decline, I wouldn’t count someone out with a place like Shenzhen; the west has nothing like it. Silicon Valley would be so much better socketed into an agile manufacturing juggernaut like that.

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