Vaporware Hype Hurts the 3D-Printing Marketplace (Op-Ed)

[Guest]

If a company claims a breakthrough tech, it needs to prove it can deliver it.

Vaporware Hype Hurts the 3D-Printing Marketplace (Op-Ed) : Read more

 

[IndignantSkeptic]

The problem with any technology is that if you want people to really feel comfortable investing in it, you have to explain fully how it works, but then if you do that then many of your competitors will easily be able to copy it, and if you patent it to prevent that then many of your competitors will claim they actually had the same ideas ages ago but were waiting until later to be able to properly implement them, and nobody will ever really know how true that is or not, even the people making the claims, because it is quite difficult to know whether a bright idea truly came just from yourself or was somehow slightly influenced by other people.

 

[web11]

Vaporware? That's gotta be one of the lamest terms ever made up. Just call it what it is, Bullshit.

 

[Kamab]

This takes the cake for most passive aggressive op-ed piece I've heard in a while. People that use crowd sourcing sites like Kickstarter have all the information they need to decide whether or not they will BACK a project. MOST people understand that they are not buying a product, that there are risks, and that they might be in for huge delays, underwhelming performance, or occasionally nothing at all. I do think we have seen decent evidence of how important marketing is for a crowd source campaign, and that some of these projects seem to tend to over commit.

On the other hand, I see the rising success of these campaigns as nothing but a good thing. The lesson to be learnt is that Kickstarter and Indiegogo are not stores, they are crowd sourcing sites that accept donations, with some chance that they deliver on their project. Their chance of delivery depends a lot on their background, credentials, proof-of-concept work, openness/responsiveness, and degree of difficulty of their task. Most of these things can be researched in the 1-2 month frame that these projects collect money for. I have personally not backed a 3D printer project because most are massively overly backed and target too many stretch goals, usually meaning delays in fulfillment. If one turns out successfully, I will purchase it from them through retail and be afforded the protections that we as consumers have.

 

[alidan]

@web11
vaporware is something that was being developed for reasons it stops without releasing a product.

a failure, missteps, yea, you can call them that, but not BS.
i at least make a distinction between vaporware and fraud.

 

[Mp3zer]

3d printing does not make any sence what can you do print a plastic cup in 3 days i think 3d printing will ever be a step up from regular 2d printing