The Google trend graph is based on searches? If you frequent the MakerBot forums, you would see that there are thousands of discussions mostly related to solving inherent design deficiencies, griping about customer services and people producing fixes and replacement parts. That has to skew the graph!

DTaylor, I thing you are spot on about the trend in buyers! Like most hobbies, people start to get in "on the cheap" until they see if it is something that they are really interested in and then they invest more into it. I see it with RC Hobbies, Robotics, Gun enthusiasts, Car Enthusiasts, and 3D printing enthusiasts.

Derek, were you at Maker Faire NY? Joe has been there the past few three years and everyone that has met him would agree with you. We have built tons of printers since 2010 and last year we built several Prusa i3s. They are compact, easy to build, solid, reliable and have great printing volume. While there are scores of under $700.00 3D Printers out there now, you would be hard pressed to find many better than his design.