Rumors are spreading like wildfire about Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), and possibly Apple, entering the 3-D printer market. According to Trip Chowdry of Global Equities Research, both of these tech giants are planning to launch an all in one 3D printer. This could be serious competition for companies that are already established in this market niche, such as 3D Systems, and Stratasys.
Chowdry wrote recently that “Google is secretly working on building the next generation of 3-D printers called Google Project Tango.” There is similar speculation that Apple is doing the same thing utilizing its PrimeSense technology.
While nothing has been confirmed, it would make a lot of sense for either, or both of these companies to want to enter the 3D printer market. The industry has been growing meteorically with a growth rate of 34.9% in 2013, and many industry experts predicting an ongoing growth rate of more that 20% annually, for at least the next five years. Google is constantly looking at new sectors to maintain its revenue growth at steady pace, and it has a huge amount of technical knowledge and resources.
If there is an impending new product, the most likely place for it to be confirmed would be at the Google I/O conference which runs between the 25th and 26th of June. This is often where Google introduces topics around projects it is working on. Google’s recent purchases also point towards something like this being in the works. It acquired Nest earlier this year which is a manufacturer of smart thermostats and smoke detectors. Google has also been fairly clear that it is interested in making any product that can be controlled wirelessly.
