3D printers have lead to rapid prototyping and a made a significant
impact on product design. However, rapid prototyping is now morphing
into rapid, high-end manufacturing such as hearing-aid production.
Early versions of machines that can fabricate electronics and displays
alongside mechanical structures will be more widely available by the
end of the decade.
3D printers will continue to lower cost for experimentation and
small-scale production. In the long run they may lead to microniche
production aimed at diverse, idiosyncratic communities previously
ignored by mass producers. Microniche, in turn, may lead to
peer-to-peer design where objects can be shared online as easily as we
currently share music. The rise of open-source product design is
inevitable.
A more extreme scenario plays out with the deconstruction of the
global economy as each home turns into a personal factory. Although
this view is most likely wrong, it does point to the inevitable upset
in our traditional producer-consumer models.
