This post is indicative of where we are on the hype cycle for 3D printing (
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=2124315), i.e. right at the peak.
Consumer products are still, and will be for a few years, made in traditional ways. The lower cost of production in China being the biggest factor today for the last step of concept to real.
Pumping money into a sector will accelerate it, but the heating funding environment for hardware isn't a fundamental change.
To draw an analogy to software you really need to compare timescales and access to sufficient technology.
A talented developer can rent sufficient technology to support thousands of customers a day on a website and build the product in a week for a small launch.
On axes of both time and money hardware idea to product are still at least an order of magnitude higher. Which, to be fair, is still much better than it has been, and a welcome evolution of the market.
Consumer products are still, and will be for a few years, made in traditional ways. The lower cost of production in China being the biggest factor today for the last step of concept to real.
Pumping money into a sector will accelerate it, but the heating funding environment for hardware isn't a fundamental change.
To draw an analogy to software you really need to compare timescales and access to sufficient technology.
A talented developer can rent sufficient technology to support thousands of customers a day on a website and build the product in a week for a small launch.
On axes of both time and money hardware idea to product are still at least an order of magnitude higher. Which, to be fair, is still much better than it has been, and a welcome evolution of the market.