This is something that I have discussed with other industry experts. As you know, Hewlett Packard has been selling dirt cheap 2D Printers for years. Basically they give printers away, but make a killing on selling over priced ink and toner cartridges. Could this same model be used in their 3D Printing counterpart?

We know that HP is going to enter the 3D printing industry sometime in 2014. Could they utilize the same business model, and sell high quality 3D printers at a fraction of the price that we see StrataSys and 3D Systems sell them for?

They could. All they would have to do is make it so that their printers are only compatible with a certain type of filament, resin etc. That type of filament or resin would only be able to be purchased from HP. The prices of the filament and resin would not have to be much higher (if at all) that what is out there today. However, HP could utilize econonies of scale to make a fortune. If they sold thousands of printers, all requiring their filament/resin, they could open huge warehouses to mass produce it.

I think that's how HP will greatly reduce the price of 3D Printers. Think about it. MakerBot printers use filament that can be purchased virtually anywhere. If they somehow made their printers only compatible with the filament that they sell, then they could afford to reduce the price of their printers, knowing they would make a killing off filament sales.