bits to atoms

staples is rolling out 3d printing services in select countries in europe and will scale up to other countries quickly after that. i believe this is the start of a new revolution. some thinkers are already talking about "cloud manufacturing" where distributed 3d printers will enable point of consumption manufacturing for designs downloaded by customers from the cloud. i see china manufacturing going away within 15 years as printers become faster and capable of using multiple materials. costs will also start to come down dramatically. 3d printers are today where computers were in the 70s - but now, the progression is going to be far more dramatic...

here is a video demonstration of the mcor printers that staples will offer their services on:

note how slow they currently are. this should change dramatically within 5 years...