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.

自動翻譯僅供參考

3D 打印機(jī)的非理性價格戰(zhàn)

你眼中的鷹眼會注意到上面提到的河邊光固化3D打印機(jī)的一些有趣之處。幾乎所有的設(shè)計——從可移動的構(gòu)建板到歡樂的前按鈕——都是對FraveSlab形式1的直接敬意。因此，人們可以假設(shè)Riverside應(yīng)該（也確實）打印3D對象以及形式1，并且應(yīng)該是可比的產(chǎn)品。然而，在表單1的成本3299美元，并已測試可用性和安全性，河畔的成本為1480美元。

在一個正常的市場下跌這樣的價格就好了。你要20元的T恤，最終耗資2，因為自動化和大規(guī)模生產(chǎn)允許更低的價格和更高的銷售量。然而，在技術(shù)價格下跌是危險的。在較低的價格點技術(shù)不成為商品，它變成低質(zhì)量的cruft。雖然我不會說3300美元不是很多錢，我們可以假設(shè)，F(xiàn)ormlabs開著自己的價格降下來，盡可能同時考慮到研究和開發(fā)。濱江騎上設(shè)計的燕尾服，甚至削減幾個小錢到那里。

可以說，濱江有一些有趣的功能。的主要改進(jìn)是，它使用一個樹脂制容器，持續(xù)“幾個月而不是周”，因為它使用的薄膜的樹脂從基代替嬌嫩硅氧烷分離。但是它仍然使用開源軟件進(jìn)行建模和設(shè)計的情況下看起來是奇怪原始和衍生。這就像那些“便宜”Android平板電腦或上網(wǎng)本充斥市場，從根本上破壞競爭中和，我認(rèn)為，玷污了Android的在平板電腦市場的聲譽。

我不希望任何人吝惜一個3D打印體驗，我敢肯定，且預(yù)算有限的廠商會發(fā)現(xiàn)濱江相當(dāng)誘人。然而，有一件事是低成本技術(shù)球迷沒有看到：用戶體驗，支持，設(shè)計和易用性都遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)好于大多數(shù)制造商建立比新公司一意孤行，推動價格下降取薄利商品的銷售，而不是售后設(shè)備和支持。再次，濱江可能是驚人的，但我已經(jīng)用了足夠的低端市場FDM又名擠壓打印機(jī)要知道，一旦你通過一定的價格點的質(zhì)量急劇下降。

可以像Formlabs制造商降低他們的打印機(jī)的價格是多少？當(dāng)然，我敢肯定他們會的。然而，它們不能減少一半該價格。該表格1+是，它同時提供消費者和專業(yè)市場，是非常容易使用的感謝堅實的軟件和硬件的獨特的打印機(jī)。濱江，這將是未來亞馬遜在幾個月內(nèi)，比承諾以更低的價格更小。我擔(dān)心，雖然這可能是精一些，它可能會令人失望更多。