[Philip Lelyveld comment: the author's actual point is that there is not yet a clear "Moore's Law" for 3D printing. Figuring out how to scale up production is a real problem.]
Here’s the rub: 3D Systems spent just $14.3 million on research and development in 2011. That’s a paltry 6 percent of revenue. Its main rival Stratasys (SSYS)posted 2011 revenue of $155.9 million and spent $14.4 million on R&D.
To the extent that there are big price/performance advances taking place today, they are happening at such companies as
Shapeways. Based in New York, the company operates about 10 3D printers at factories in Europe and the U.S. People go to its website, pick objects they want, and Shapeways prints them and mails them. The company has developed its own algorithms to automate how products are arranged in the 3D printers and has more automated shipping systems. “The manual process that used to take one technician two to three hours now takes place in the background,” says Peter Weijmarshausen, chief executive officer at Shapeways.