MakerBot in trouble?

[sasabs]

I just read that MakerBot is laying off 100 US staff and shutting down all their US retail stores.

Seems to me they were overly ambitious in a crowded market.

[ServiceXp]

Yep, and from everything I've read, it was a VERY good move. My local Sam's club is now selling them.

[jfkansas]

From what I have read is they moved too fast and abandoned followers that made them who they were. They moved to the 5th gen POS when they were just perfecting the Replicator series. Too much too soon is what happened. The higher ups wanted a "pretty" machine... Then all the extruder jams happened and they went down the toilet from there. Over engineering at its finest.

[curious aardvark]

hardly overengineering.
The 5th gen doesn't have a heated bed, the auto calibration apparently doesn't work, the extruders are crap and I haven't come across anyone who's got the wifi or on board camera to work properly.

I'd have to go for seriously under engineered, badly made and not a patch on the first and second generation models.

Given that the two 3d printers in my workshop are rip offs of older makerbot models - as are many thousands the world over. It's sad to see a company that obviously got it absolutely right early on, to hit such a low ebb.

[jfkansas]

Ya I get what you are saying. In over engineering I mean just making things too complex for the required task. Then poorly executing and testing the design was the last nail.... The 5th gen was rushed to market and they killed off the earlier models way too quickly. It wasn't a bad plan, just poorly executed. They had momentum in the hobbyist/maker area and wanted to propel that to the mass market, plain and simple it backfired.

hardly overengineering.
The 5th gen doesn't have a heated bed, the auto calibration apparently doesn't work, the extruders are crap and I haven't come across anyone who's got the wifi or on board camera to work properly.

I'd have to go for seriously under engineered, badly made and not a patch on the first and second generation models.

Given that the two 3d printers in my workshop are rip offs of older makerbot models - as are many thousands the world over. It's sad to see a company that obviously got it absolutely right early on, to hit such a low ebb.

[Nargg]

I think a better explanation is engineered for high end in a low end market. Basically couldn't sell them for enough to make money. (main reason I purchased a FlashForge, already engineered and made well enough to get the job done. I realize I'll be re-engineering a lot of things, or in other words, check out some of my posts on thingiverse..., and this, and that I may be replacing parts often. But, I'm OK with that. It's all about the quest and journey, right?)