Hp To Start Selling 3-D Printers in 2014

[Anonymous]

Hp To Start Selling 3-D Printers in 2014
By Patrick Hoge

Hewlett-Packard will start selling 3-D printers in the middle of next year, CEO Meg Whitman told the Canalys Channels Forum in Bangkok, according to a report on The Register.

Whitman reportedly said 3-D printing is a natural business for H-P given its history of making 2-D printers. Three-dimensional printing, also called additive manufacturing, is actually a group of technologies that builds physical objects from digital files using layers of materials ranging from plastic to metal and more.

"We are excited about 3-D printing," Whitman said. "We want to lead this business. HP labs is looking at it."

Though invented more than two decades ago, 3-D printing in the last several years has advanced greatly in terms of capabilities, cost and ease of use.

Recent stories in the San Francisco Business Times looked at the trend and highlighted how local companies from small prototyping and design shops such as Studio Fathom in Oakland to modeling software giant Autodesk  are helping to move 3-D printing from the lab to the mainstream.

Already, new businesses are growing that provide 3-D printing services to consumers and companies, and entrepreneurs are using the technology to launch startups around the Bay Area.

At the same time, the sophistication of 3-D printing is starting to bring the technology into industrial manufacturing of finished goods in a variety of industries, including dental and medical fields, which increasingly rely on 3-D printed prosthetics, and the aerospace industry, which is using software algorithms to produce lightweight parts that were not previously possible to make.

The overall dollars for 3-D products and services remain small — projected to grow from $2.2 billion last year to $6 billion by 2017, but the potential is exciting to many.

"3-D printing is in its infancy" Whitman said. "It is a big opportunity and we are all over it. We will have something by the middle of next year."

Hp To Start Selling 3-D Printers in 2014
By Patrick Hoge

Hewlett-Packard will start selling 3-D printers in the middle of next year, CEO Meg Whitman told the Canalys Channels Forum in Bangkok, according to a report on The Register.

Whitman reportedly said 3-D printing is a natural business for H-P given its history of making 2-D printers. Three-dimensional printing, also called additive manufacturing, is actually a group of technologies that builds physical objects from digital files using layers of materials ranging from plastic to metal and more.

"We are excited about 3-D printing," Whitman said. "We want to lead this business. HP labs is looking at it."

Though invented more than two decades ago, 3-D printing in the last several years has advanced greatly in terms of capabilities, cost and ease of use.

Recent stories in the San Francisco Business Times looked at the trend and highlighted how local companies from small prototyping and design shops such as Studio Fathom in Oakland to modeling software giant Autodesk  are helping to move 3-D printing from the lab to the mainstream.

Already, new businesses are growing that provide 3-D printing services to consumers and companies, and entrepreneurs are using the technology to launch startups around the Bay Area.

At the same time, the sophistication of 3-D printing is starting to bring the technology into industrial manufacturing of finished goods in a variety of industries, including dental and medical fields, which increasingly rely on 3-D printed prosthetics, and the aerospace industry, which is using software algorithms to produce lightweight parts that were not previously possible to make.

The overall dollars for 3-D products and services remain small — projected to grow from $2.2 billion last year to $6 billion by 2017, but the potential is exciting to many.

"3-D printing is in its infancy" Whitman said. "It is a big opportunity and we are all over it. We will have something by the middle of next year."

[Author]

November 27, 2013 at 11:24 AM