[yew-right]

Exactly. But why should it be limited to just prototypes?

If I can produce a casing for a development board that looks as good as some overpriced Apple junk or locked down Microsoft OEM crap, there's no need for me to jump through all their silly hoops. I can make my own device to do just the things I want it to do. My way.

re: the electronics of today's hardware: It's all the same stuff, more or less. How many factories are there? How many chipmakers? Oustide of uber-geeks, people are not that fussy about what's on the inside of their devices. Give them the power to make their own gadget that is personalised and programmable, and many of them will have no need to play games with Apple or Microsoft.

[retroafroman]

So called '3D printers' are actually rapid prototyping machines. Usually of the additive variety. The reason they are called rapid prototype machines is because their capability to is fairly well limited to prototypes. The time required to print an object vs. injection mold an object is at least one order of magnitude apart, for state of the art machines (between many minutes to hours for 3D printers compared with seconds with most injection molding processes). It will be many more years before 3D printers, and especially hobbyist level machines, can produce parts comparable to those made in traditional manufacturing (read: high capital investment) techniques in regards to cycle time, surface finish, variety of material, consistency, and durability.