The eagle-eyed among you will notice something interesting about the Riverside Photocuring 3D Printer pictured above. Almost all of the design – from the removable build plate to the jolly front button – is a direct homage to the Formlabs Form 1. One could assume, therefore, that the Riverside should (and does) print 3D objects as well as the Form 1 and should be a comparable product. However, where the Form 1 costs $3,299 and has been tested for usability and safety, the Riverside costs $1,480.

In a normal market falling prices like these are just fine. You want a $20 t-shirt to eventually cost $2 because automation and mass production allow for lower prices and higher volume. However, in technology falling prices are dangerous. At lower price points technology doesn’t become a commodity, it becomes low-quality cruft. While I won’t say that $3,300 isn’t a lot of money, we can assume that Formlabs drove their price down as far as possible while taking into account research and development. The Riverside rides on the coattails of that design and even cuts a few corners to get there.

Arguably the Riverside has a few interesting features. The primary improvement is that it uses a resin container that lasts for “months and not weeks” because it uses a film to separate the resin from the base instead of delicate silicone. However it still uses open source software for modeling and the case design looks to be oddly primitive and derivative. It’s like one of those “cheap” Android tablets or netbooks that flooded the market, essentially destroying competition and, I would argue, tarnished Android’s reputation in the tablet market.

I don’t want to begrudge anyone a 3D-printing experience and I’m sure a maker on a budget would find the Riverside quite tempting. However, there is one thing that fans of low-cost technology don’t see: that the user experience, support, design, and usability are far better in most established makers than in new companies hell-bent on driving the prices down to take small profits in commodity sales and not on aftermarket equipment and support. Once again, the Riverside might be amazing but I’ve used enough downmarket FDM aka extrusion printers to know that once you pass a certain price point the quality falls precipitously.

Could a manufacturer like Formlabs lower the price of their printer? Absolutely, and I’m sure they will. However, they can’t halve that price. The Form 1+ is a unique printer in that it serves both the consumer and the professional markets at the same time and is surprisingly easy to use thanks to solid software and hardware. The Riverside, which will be coming to Amazon in a few months, promises little more than a lower price. I worry that while this might be fine for some, it will probably be disappointing for many more.

3D 打印机的非理性价格战

眼尖中，你会发现一些有趣的滨江光固化3D打印机见上图。几乎所有的设计 - 从可移动构建板到菜市场买菜正面的按钮 - 是直接尊敬对Formlabs表1.一个可以承担的，因此，滨江宜（并执行）打印三维物体以及表单1并且应该是可比较的产品。然而，在表格1费用3299美元，并已经过测试，易用性和安全性，滨江成本1480美元。

在一个正常的市场下跌这样的价格就好了。你要20元的T恤，最终耗资2，因为自动化和大规模生产允许更低的价格和更高的销售量。然而，在技术价格下跌是危险的。在较低的价格点技术不成为商品，它变成低质量的cruft。虽然我不会说3300美元不是很多钱，我们可以假设，Formlabs开着自己的价格降下来，尽可能同时考虑到研究和开发。滨江骑上设计的燕尾服，甚至削减几个小钱到那里。

可以说，滨江有一些有趣的功能。的主要改进是，它使用一个树脂制容器，持续“几个月而不是周”，因为它使用的薄膜的树脂从基代替娇嫩硅氧烷分离。但是它仍然使用开源软件进行建模和设计的情况下看起来是奇怪原始和衍生。这就像那些“便宜”Android平板电脑或上网本充斥市场，从根本上破坏竞争中和，我认为，玷污了Android的在平板电脑市场的声誉。

我不希望任何人吝惜一个3D打印体验，我敢肯定，且预算有限的厂商会发现滨江相当诱人。然而，有一件事是低成本技术球迷没有看到：用户体验，支持，设计和易用性都远远好于大多数制造商建立比新公司一意孤行，推动价格下降取薄利商品的销售，而不是售后设备和支持。再次，滨江可能是惊人的，但我已经用了足够的低端市场FDM又名挤压打印机要知道，一旦你通过一定的价格点的质量急剧下降。

可以像Formlabs制造商降低他们的打印机的价格是多少？当然，我敢肯定他们会的。然而，它们不能减少一半该价格。该表格1+是，它同时提供消费者和专业市场，是非常容易使用的感谢坚实的软件和硬件的独特的打印机。滨江，这将是未来亚马逊在几个月内，比承诺以更低的价格更小。我担心，虽然这可能是精一些，它可能会令人失望更多。