When you’ve got a 3D printer in every home, what do you need? Things to print, of course.
A few months back, MakerBot set out to launch an online store front for premium 3D printable objects sort of like an iTunes for 3D printing, where you can download the 3D models.
Initially MakerBot put up a few offerings of their own to get the ball rolling. But they have finally found their first big partner – Sesame Workshop, the legendary company behind Sesame Street. Sesame Street is its first global licensed brand and this means you’ll be able to get3D printable Sesame Street licensed content via MakerBot Digital Store and MakerBot Retail Stores. For a buck twenty nine, you’ll get a prepped and tested digital version of Snuffleupagus that’ll let you print as many snuffies as your heart desires.
As of January of this year, MakerBot had sold just shy of 50,000 3d printers since launch. And, for Sesame street this will not mean much in terms of revenues because, even if it turns out that every one in four MakerBot ownersbuys the model, that’s just $15,000 a tiny drop in the bucket for Sesame Workshop, who brings in somewhere around $45 million in merchandise licensing each and every year. As per observers, Sesame Workshop isn’t doing this to rake in the cash; they’re doing it to be a part of something cool, early on.
Hence, all this sound great, but this is all part a very long term play. MakerBot, meanwhile, is laying a solid foundation for the large future customer base, with the assumption that 3D printing eventually goes ubiquitous. If one day soon there really is a 3D printer in every home, they’re trying to make sure they own the pick-and-print market early.
ImageSource: Sesame Street