“Many are waiting for Apple to release the so-called iWatch,” Louis Bedigian writes for Benzinga. “Others are hoping for a full-fledged TV set.”
“Apple could be developing a revolutionary pair of ear buds that can monitor a person’s heart rate and blood pressure. The company may also acquire Beats Electronics and enter the premium headphones market,” Bedigian writes. “Trip Chowdhry, the Managing Director of Equity Research at Global Equities Research, has another theory. He believes that Google is working on an all-in-one 3D printer project. The project could be announced in June or October, followed by an actual release in 12 to 18 months.”
“As if that weren’t interesting enough, Chowdhry also thinks that Google started working on its all-in-one 3D printer after learning/predicting that Apple is about to enter the space,” Bedigian writes. “This isn’t the first time that Google and other tech companies were thought to have made a preemptive strike against Apple. For example, Samsung, Google and other tech companies announced that they were developing a smart watch after rumors claimed that Apple was developing a device called the iWatch… Chowdhry also believes that Apple could use PrimeSense (which it acquired last year) to enhance its all-in-one 3D printer initiative.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We don’t call him “Trippy Chowderhead” for nothing.
I have a printer, but it sits idle. The ink cartridges cost almost as much as a new one. I wonder if 3D printer will use the same business model
I think the printer companies have killed the goose already by charging exorbitant prices. i use professional printing services when I need to and the excitement over printing large images at home has definitely worn off by the high cost and bother.
same here, fsck ’em.
As it happens, there are a lot of pro photographers now who don’t even bother using their own printers to deliver finished product to customers. They just order them from Apple through Aperture.
-jcr
SmugMug perhaps but not Apple.
-cjm
Very smart. I also like the fact the economy still supports the printing industry. Printing at home is so overrated for graphics and photo projects when there are pleasant & better alternatives.
Have you all forgotten that Apple pioneered desktop publishing. Remember when Apple released the first consumer laser printer? Why would it be such a stretch to think that Apple would want to be involved at the beginning of desktop manufacturing, which will be far bigger than desktop publishing?
I have had a desktop 3D printer for over a year and a half that cost less than $500 and can print anything that fits in a 6″ cube. A 1KG (2.2 lb.) spool of ABS costs $31 at Amazon and makes dozens of printed parts. There is a lot of room for improvement in the existing crop of printers, and those improvements are happening at an amazing pace.
I would welcome the entry of Apple into the 3D printer mix, but with or without them this will be the future of much of consumer manufacturing IMNSHO.
Yes – PIONEERED desktop publishing. They no longer make laser printers – and haven’t for a very long time.
In other sectors, they came in later and took over. E.g., they made a phone and a tablet that were so incredibly far beyond anything that existed that the earlier products were no longer relevant.
Similarly with various other products.
So they can’t pioneer. 3D printers are well on their way. Can they make an iPhone-like jump… produce something that is so dramatically better that it takes over the category? Just being one among many players at the same level is not how Apple operates.
It would seem that Apple enters markets either because no-one is doing it at all, or because Apple can do it way better than anyone else.
Could Apple really do a printer – albeit a 3D printer – SO differently or so much better than anyone else? I doubt it.
Actually, I’m counting on someone doing exactly that. Go work with any current 3D printer and you’ll be hoping so yourself.
Yeah, Apple, make us a 3D printer that prints gold.
Not quite, but it will print “champagne”.
There are 3D printers that do print gold. You can custom design gold or silver jewelry and print it. That said, I doubt that Apple would enter such a specialized market, and those printers a pretty pricy for the consumer or pro-sumer markets.
…Prints graphene! Then prints diamonds while it’s in idle mode.
A 3D printer just prints parts. You still have to do the assembly yourself.
That’s not true. I have seen functioning gearboxes with workable clearances printed. A bottle with the cap already screwed on is another one. With the multi material multi color printers metal and plastic and rubber assemblies can be printed fully assembled.
I work with CAD files and what are called “rapid prototypers” in the real world they use soluble and insoluble materials together (desolving the soluble matrix material later) or they cure resins with laser streams . now the lasers can fuse powered materials into solid objects the old solid works printers still sell for 50 grand the 3-d printers people are seeing are toys compared to these machines. people think its cool to make some cartoon toy in 3d (and it is) but try to make a replica of a police badge for new york complete with beavers indians pilgrims ,eagles beer barrels and on higher ranks oak leaves and lettering in the size of a penny on one of these printers( you can see my model at https://www.dropbox.com/s/djqsuxoajby8989/nypdchief%20of%20detectives.psd) oh yes Arnold ziffel (above) there already are printers that print in gold (they don’t make gold just make things out of powdered gold )
Beavers.
‘desolving the soluble matrix material ‘
dissolving – maybe?
One of the leading makers of 3D printers of various sizes and applications is called Stratasys, based here in Minnesota. For a nifty look at 3D printers and their (possible) future, maybe watch this:
It’s so you can print out your beats headphones while drinking your syrup.
Apple has been known to develop their own prototyping and testing machines for use in their labs. I seriously doubt Apple wants to enter the 3D printing market.
This guy is a tool.
Agreed, Apple is most likely trying to develop and protect their own in-house 3D printer tech. For everything from prototyping phones, macs and wearables to the executive teams corp credit cards! 🙂
Apples Liquid Metal printers will spark another renaissance !
Clever fellow! Hmm.
Anyone who Includes Beats in the same sentence as “premium headphone market” is clueless. Premium headphones are made by Beyer, AKG, Sennheiser & Sony, probably in that order. Beats headphones are nothing but a fashion statement that will be off the radar in no time. Half the people seen wearing them don’t even have them plugged in!
Guys wait a minute. The 3D printer is the easy part. There are half a dozen basic 3D printer types and you can’t afford to buy them all, so we job shop our work.
What costs the most? 3D solids software and the “add-ons” which cost 2 – 5 times as much as the basic 3D solids CAD. Then comes the training time and cost, unless you are really swift.
What a tool.
I haven’t needed a printer at home for well over a decade (since I printed a final proofing copy of my diploma-thesis).
Then it sat idle for a couple of years until I realized it didn’t print anymore at all (gears had probably become stuck).
The guy at google who has supposedly convinced management to build a 3d-printer based on the assumption that AAPL is doing one is an even bigger moron, though.
I’m pretty sure that half of these “leaks” are actually Apple-orchestrated disinformation-campaigns.
I don’t need a plastic-printer. I have nothing in my house-hold that is a consumable and needs cheap replacement by a self-printed plastic part.
Apple doesn’t need to wage disinformation. The industry’s natural idiocy does the trick, thank you very much.
He believes that Google is working on an all-in-one 3D printer project.
“All-In-One”. So it has a 3D holographic scanner where you place the source object, use lasers to scan its precise shape, feed it into the 3D vector program built into the printer, the output a duplicate of the source in recyclable plastic. You can even FAX the 3D rendering data to other Goggle 3D printers. RadiKewl! /s
The project could be announced in June or October, followed by an actual release in 12 to 18 months.
…Internally at Goggle then a year or two later to selected Goggle partners, then a year or two after that to anyone willing to cough up a $million until the inventory is cleared out, then we’ll see… /s
Hahaha MDN on your take.