Comment Re:Well, duh (Score 1) 38
The end goal for them isn't a printer where you can print whatever you want.
They know the market for people who know how to use CAD software is limited, so they're focusing on the people that basically want "Star Trek Replicator" in their house. Their bigger play is to have an ecosystem where they can rope in manufacturers to allow people to have a printer at home that can make goods without needing to manufacture them ahead of time. They're even laying the ground work to move away from delivering 3D models to delivering pre-sliced gcode. It's not a huge stretch to move from standard gcode to a DRM locked or unreadable binary version.
Your dishwasher needs a new roller? Or you want to print out little statue of [popular character]?
Now you aren't ordering one online where the manufacturer needs to keep inventory and deal with shipping. Instead, you're ordering through makerworld where they get a cut, the manufacturer gets paid without having to actually hold any stock or pay a person to pick-and-pack, and you supply the materials and labor on top of paying for the privilege of printing it yourself. And, with the AI enabled camera connected to the cloud service, they can determine whether the print was successful so they'll be able to tell the printer that you're not allowed to print a 2nd one without paying again.
It's not there yet, but this is obviously the direction they want to take. It's like game DLC but in the real world.