Interview with Alexander Hafner, MakerBot Europe's General Manager

[Brian_Krassenstein]

MakerBot has had quite an exciting last few months, and the company's future looks to have even more changes in store. 3DPrint.com was able to catch up with Alexander Hafner, who has served as MakerBot Europe's general manager since its launch last August, as he prepared his speech for this week's Inside 3D Printing Conference Berlin. Hafner took the time to tell 3DPrint.com about some of his insights regarding MakerBot, including his thoughts on progress in Europe, recent changes to MakerBot's management team, and the future of the company. Find out what he had to say in the full article: http://3dprint.com/48224/alexander-hafner-makerbot/


Below is a photo of Alexander Hafner, General Manager, MakerBot Europe:

[Mickey3D]

Nice read... It will be interesting to see how the Innovation Centers fair in EU with the 5th gen equipment.

[curious aardvark]

I don’t think the 5th Generation MakerBot Replicator is a platform that needs a replacement after a year. This was also the reason we didn’t announce any new [hardware] at CES this year. I think with the 5th Generation, we’ve been able to change the industry.

If by changing the industry he means a machine that's less capable than their 1st and 2nd generation machines and seems to break a lot more frequently.
Then, yeah - that's definitely a change.

[LambdaFF]

I think it's a pretty ballsy interview for a company that knowingly delivered almost unserviceable machines and kept coming short of support for months.
http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...light=makerbot

Since the closing of their retail shops is announced now and 2 were less than 1,5 year old... I'm not sure what to expect for these innovation centers.
http://3dprintboard.com/showthread.p...light=makerbot

Some healthy scepticism would not hurt the industry, perhaps would even bring added interest to the articles.

[curious aardvark]

yeah the unwavering enthusiasm, while appealing in the short term, does make you wonder.

On the other hand, a lot of people won't give interviews to cynics ;-)
So maybe the ebullience of the 3dprint.com articles has a purpose.

But you have to wonder about how stratasys currently sees makerbot. The latest machines, not only limit printing materials, but pretty much don't work as well as the machines they were making a few years ago.
Killing the shops is probably just the first step - seeing as how just about every startup company currently has a better, often more affordable, product.

[Wolfie]

Innovation Centers? Rofl. I bet they are just trolling for more free stuff to try to claim patents on and then produce as sub-standard parts.