I think that 3D printers, like games consoles, will become commoditised in time and that will see the initial proliferation of makes and models, followed by a period of attrition down to a relative few manufacturers of the hardware. Where the money will be is in the designs available for consumption. But we have some way to go yet before that happens. in-the-home 3D printing today is like the earliest VCRs, where the machines are pretty much just getting started. Machines in a few years will barely resemble what we can buy today. And they will have to become much more automation and thus simpler to use. The mass sales market will not stand for printers that need to have their print beds levelled using scraps of paper and thumb screws, for example. All of the mechanics of printing that we fiddle and faddle about with today will have to be made near-invisible to the end user. Then, and only then, will we see mass adoption.

The same goes for the raw materials. Filament that needs to be carefully stored, protected against moisture, will have to be replaced by much hardier stock. Multiple materials also, plastics, metals, conductors, so much that is necessary to produce working products. These will all have to be incorporated by some means.

Once the machines become capable then the on-line stores will begin to pay for themselves by being able to sell products that people actually want to buy.

Right now, as I cast my gaze across Thingiverse and other sources, and witness the quality of the product printed, I feel we are some way off the "big game". But I am absolutely certain that we will get there. 3D printing, by whatever name it ultimately becomes known, is here to stay and established industries are going to be disrupted a sure as the media industries have over the past several decades.