Bre Pettis does Mazda ads.

Stratasys bought Makerbot to position themselves against the 3D systems Cube in the consumer market. Kind of lik Windows and Mac, but with reversed price points. Maybe exactly like Windows and Mac. Matters not who sels more because the goal is for the 2 of them to sell the lion's share, with the cream of the rep rap crop as an analog to linux. Like the auto industry in the 1920s, or the home computing industry in the 1980s, there will be a shake out just as soon as these machines become easy enough and useful enough to enough people. The difference is that neither the replicator nor the cube are marketed or positioned to produce complex objects, and this is ultimately what the marketplace will want in a shoebox sized build envelope. Phones, tablets, we all know that there are massive hurdles in technology for items like these, but many people to whom I have spoken and are not in the know think they will soon buy one cheap machine that will keep them out of Best Buy forever.
My answer of course is larger machines that will allow a wide variety of things like car parts, medical parts, art, engineering and general models to be made, but these will remain way beyond the price points of the mass market for at least the near future. All of us here can do frequently what the big companies can not, unfettered by stock holders, and board members. So as the big guys sit there deciding the fate of the world, perhaps we, those of us who have real issues with the monitization of FDM can take comfort in knowing that the advancements that reshuffle the industry will go unseen by the big players, until just shortly they assume their new positions as spectators. After all, is not interruption what this is all about?