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Back in June Glowforge touted itself as the Next Big Thing in 3D printing after raising $9M in series A venture money. They announced a laser cutting machine marketed for the home market, which would consist of a device about the size of a laser printer that would precision cut materials such as paper and leather, and said it would cost under $2,500. At the time of their first announcement they didn't look like they had anything more than an idea and a good sales pitch, but they've now announced that they've raised $28M in crowdsource money, which works out to something like 6000 units. They said they will start sending them out in December.
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Glowforge Claims $28M in Pre-Orders
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Cum tacent, clamant. When they are silent, they shout. -Cicero
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SanityCheck on Tuesday November 03 2015, @07:39PM
Yeah I don't buy into nonsense like that. Give me the tools or I won't buy it. Any cloud nonsense is probably a way to weasel some sort of a rent on an item you already own.
(Score: 2) by arulatas on Tuesday November 03 2015, @08:30PM
Or maybe that is how they make their money. Monthly fees to keep your device functional. The new razor blade, with no out lay of cash for the physical objects (blades).
----- 10 turns around
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday November 03 2015, @09:18PM
In some ways, the price isn't that bad because of the 300x500mm bed size. It's hard to find a CO2 cutter on Amazon in that bed size for less. But, there is a huge price drop if you go down to a 200x300mm bed size: http://www.amazon.com/Engraving-Cutting-Engraver-Parallel-Winsealxp/dp/B00C9UZCOS [amazon.com] The software for these $600 40 watt CO2 cutters is reputed to be awful but if you look in the comments, you can find some helpful information, like how to not use the software for anything but sending jobs to the printer.
So some of the price on the glowforge comes from the fact that it can charge $2400 because nobody is yet making a cheap medium size cutter, and some comes from the fact that it's software will probably at least be OK. It will be interesting to see where that price goes once Chinese medium sized cutters come out. If for example there was something in that size for about $1000, a lot of people (myself included) will spend the time figuring out how to get around, or just live with, some crumby software.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 03 2015, @09:42PM
What is the home market for these things anyway? I view them to be like high-end barrista machines, or bread machines, or treadmills, or a number of things that one uses the hell out of in the first month, then it sits and collects dust for the rest of its life. Unless you're setting up something like your own home stationary business. what the hell do people need something like this for? The same with 3D printers.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Tuesday November 03 2015, @11:07PM
I'm now 6 months into owning a 3D printer, and I've had it running 30-40 hours per week since I got it. If I had a laser cutter, I'm sure I'd be using the heck out of it too. But that's me -- this stuff is my kind of stuff because I've always been into making things. Most of my life, that drive has been pottery focused, but I remember about a dozen years ago talking to some potter friends about how I thought plastic was a hugely under-appreciated material (nobody agreed). The only thing missing from 3D printing that I'd really enjoy, is a whole lot of fire, so I've been thinking about taking up metal casting and using the printer to make positives to mold.
Anyway, these kinds of things appeal to a limited market to be sure, and I'm also sure some people who aren't really built for it get caught up in the hype and end up with expensive paperweights. But for a small segment of the population, these tools are like crack cocaine.