Trends in IoT and 3D printing

IoT (Internet of Things) and 3D printing (additive manufacturing) have similar recent timelines. They’ve gone through their hype stages and are now facing stricter scrutiny, if not outright backlash. Now is a good time to analyze the progress and shortcomings of both IoT and 3D printing, on the consumer side and the industrial side.

Consumer and Professional Trends in IoT and 3D Printing

IoT (Internet of Things) and 3D printing (additive manufacturing) have similar recent timelines. They’ve gone through their hype stages and are now facing stricter scrutiny, if not outright backlash. Now is a good time to analyze the progress and shortcomings of both IoT and 3D printing, on the consumer side and the industrial side.

IoT: Consumer Market

Now that the novelty of IoT devices has worn off for even their most enthusiastic users, IoT is facing a cooling market. The number of devices is still expected to grow 13% in 2024, but that’s a slightly slower growth rate than 2023. The top challenge appears to be friction in user experience, specifically the number of separate apps and their frequent updates. With the sunset of Google Home, these problems don’t appear to be going away any time soon.

3D Printing: Consumer Market

3D printers have become a lot more consumer-friendly over the past few years, especially around calibration. Gone are the days of physically adjusting parts within fractions of a millimeter. 3D printers now self-calibrate. There’s also more widespread, free training on how to use them. Consumers dreaming of a “Star Trek replicator” level of advancement will need to keep dreaming, but today’s 3D printers are still a lot of fun.

IoT: Industrial Market

IoT has proven its ROI for businesses and continues to grow its reach. Corporations have saved money on utility bills thanks to lighting and HVAC IoT devices, not to mention IoT security devices. Manufacturers have tapped into the power of IoT observability, predictive analytics, digital twins, and cloud-based computing. The ecosystem surrounding industry IoT– including training and product improvements– is expected to remain robust.

3D Printing: Industrial Market

3D printing has proven itself to be helpful for building prototypes in the industrial market, but it hasn’t found its foothold otherwise. 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, hasn’t yet shown it can match the scale and speed of traditional manufacturing. Part of the issue is there’s already a vibrant ecosystem in place for traditional manufacturing– training, materials available, auxiliary machines, etc. There are also economic questions around the cost of making 3D printers themselves and producing the polymers used to print the products.

Overall, even though the hype period for IoT and 3D printing might be ending, the technologies aren’t. Over the next few years, they’ll continue to adjust to the needs of the user and find their places in the market.