3D Systems Corporation (DDD): Will This Revolution Conquer Your Office Before Your Home?

Here’s how 3-D printing might finally reach its promise. Businesses across the country (and the world) begin to install low-cost machines — first in the creative and the medical trades, and then industries with a less-obvious need for on-demand manufacturing. The software industry rises to meet the need for greater design customization at lower levels of technical expertise. The democratization of design — already well under way thanks to the efforts of 3-D software maker Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) and others — makes it possible for the average user to tweak existing designs and modify things they might already have.

Then what?

In the long run, most people won’t need their own 3-D printer. On the other hand, millions might benefit from distributed on-demand manufacturing centers that deploy high-quality 3-D printers at scale to produce what people need, when they need it. In the future, these customized products may very well be delivered by unmanned drone, as I suggested in the article linked above. The widespread adoption of lower-cost professional 3-D printers by business (and quite possibly in schools as well) would be a great start, as it would give many people the expertise necessary to use complex 3-D software without the risk of first having to buy a costly machine to play with. This may seem unfathomable to the youth of today, but most people didn’t encounter a computer in the 1980s until they went to school or work. This early exposure conditioned a generation to become the innovators and early adopters of the Internet generation. Will this decade’s tinkerers be 3-D printing’s Bill Gates of the 2020s? A better question may be: Will 3-D printing ever become big enough to create its own Bill Gates?

The article Will the 3-D Printing Revolution Conquer Your Office Before Your Home? originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Alex Planes.

Fool contributor Alex Planes holds no financial position in any company mentioned here. Add him on Google+ or follow him on Twitter @TMFBiggles for more insight into markets, history, and technology.The Motley Fool recommends 3D Systems and Stratasys. The Motley Fool owns shares of 3D Systems and Stratasys and has the following options: Short Jan 2014 $36 Calls on 3D Systems and Short Jan 2014 $20 Puts on 3D Systems.

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