So this morning I was reading an article, which basically was saying that Amazon appears to be making a move to get into the 3D Printing industry. They have already created a portal for 3D Printing. Anyhow, the article makes some excellent points.

Currently there really isn't a one stop location to purchase 3D designs from. There is Thingiverse where designs are free, and then there is Shapeways, where you pay to have a design printed. However, as far as I know there is not really a big time site that allows people to sell their designs, or people to purchase advanced designs. Eventually, as 3D Printing really takes off, people are going to want to monetize their hard work in making designs. It's something that is bound to happen. In fact, I bet that if most the people on Thingiverse knew that they could sell their designs rather than give them away, most would jump ship.

Amazon is the perfect platform. They could come up with their own 3D Printers, ones which are easy to use, and are constantly updated (similar to the Kindle). Sell these printers extra cheap (maybe even take a little bit of a loss on sales), in order to get people that use your designs. Then they could open a marketplace for 3D designs. Designers could earn royalties every time someone purchases a design to print. Consumers would be able to find just about any design they could imagine. Just about every designer would most likely stop creating free designs, and start selling them to make a profit. More and more designers would become interested in 3D designs, and more and more people would become interested in 3D Printers.

I believe this is something that Amazon is secretly working on, and something we could see as soon as 2014.

What do you guys think?