MakerBot Competitor
The MakerBot has established itself as the dominant product in the sub $1000 3D printer market. Being the first entrant into the field and having a rough industrial aesthetic has helped it capture the STEM and enthusiast segment of the user base. It might have a hard time growing past that though because of its rough, wooden aesthetic and tendency to break down.
The new Personal Portable 3D Printer (US $1500 ONLY !!!..) is putting a more practical, industrial gloss on similar technology. Their site is very shady looking, but the product looks robust, seems to have fewer moving parts, and would likely be a more popular choice for schools based solely on the fact it seems more like a "real" machine. It will be interesting to see how it fares.
Disney Pins - Main Stream Limited Editions
At the Nagano Olympics in 1998 executives from the Walt Disney Company noticed attendees trading small enameled pins. Each pin commemorated an aspect of a participating country's culture, an Olympic event, or an aspect of the games e.g. the opening ceremony. Being canny marketers the Disney execs brought the concept to their theme parks. 12 years later the pins are a resounding success, available around every turn in their theme parks. The pins interesting from a customization perspective for three reasons:1. The manufacturing processes similar to those of laser cutting, CNC milling and "2.5D" custom manufacturing techniques. It wouldn't be hard for a well equiped garage to knock out similar products. 2. They produce limited runs to maintain exclusivity. The pin business is robust, but every individual pin is limited in its production run. This feeds into the customers desire to be unique.3. There is a subculture creating "Fantasy" pins. Often these take the Disney characters in salacious directions, but some create artistic homages to under represented themes. While not truly a mass customized product this product line shows the infiltration of the limited run/customer driven thought process into the core of one of the world's largest consumer brands.
Patent Models via Core77
Industrial design supersite Core77 has an awesome post on the USPTO's 19th century requirement for inventors to submit a scale model of their invention for review. While it was undoubtedly a pain for the inventors it leaves an intriguing material legacy for fans of making stuff to review. It is like doll house furniture for the mechanically adept.
Foursquare - Bits Check In to Atoms
To help promote their service in the wider world and to generate a small amount of revenue, location based service Foursquare.com is going to start selling branded merchandise. Fellow local web startup Yelp did this as well in their early days to help generate attention, but Foursquare's badge system and rich graphic library of icons make it an ideal service to move into physical products like pins and patches. With 1.6 Million people using the service and dozens of badges, they have the potential to create a lifestyle brand based on these products. Boston based JohnnyCupcakes.com generates ~$3MM annually and Chicago's Threadless.com reportedly earns ~$30MM so it would be a nice boost for a company still starting out. 
Atypical Car Customization
Subaru adds avatars Subaru is taking a page from the world of the internet allowing customers to put badges and status messages on the back of their cars. If you have a Subaru VIN number you can order these badges for free and share with the world how many Legacy's or Outback's you've owned in the past. Secondary badges also let you share statuses or interests which range from being a bicycle enthusiast to a supporter of the LGBT community. 
Crowdsourced Car Customization Company Crosses Country In other car customization news, community designed car company Local Motors has moved operations from Massachusetts to Arizona for tax benefits offered by the state. It is an unfortunate development for mass customization fans on the east coast, but will hopefully allow LM to prosper and bring their products to market.
Crowdsourced Car Customization Company Crosses Country In other car customization news, community designed car company Local Motors has moved operations from Massachusetts to Arizona for tax benefits offered by the state. It is an unfortunate development for mass customization fans on the east coast, but will hopefully allow LM to prosper and bring their products to market.
SparkFun Opens Doors for Tours
SparkFun, the rapidly growing, Colorado based etailer of electronics components and kits is opening its doors to the public and providing tours of their operation. It is an interesting move that could potentially allow a competitor to gain insight into their processes. Their gamble is that more people who get a sense for what they are building = More people who will become acolytes in the OS Hardware movement. It is a cool idea and SF deserves credit for making what could be a boring business (catalog sales of LED's!) into something fun and experiential along the lines of a backstage tour at DisneyWorld. 
ReadWriteWeb gets the Mass Customization Bug
Chris Cameron, Writer at the excellent tech blog ReadWriteWeb, has been on a tear lately covering mass customization. It is great to see the subject get more mainstream attention. Even better, Chris is adding a critical eye to the reports, avoiding the usual pitfalls of articles on mass customization. Typical stories focus on the enabling technology (e.g. 3D Printers) and "Gee Whiz" predictions of what will be possible 10 years hence, but ignore the real challenges and success stories in the industry. A breakdown of the recent MIT Smart Customization Seminarhttp://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/05/survey-of-500-mass-customization-startups-reveals-fascinating-trends.php Reviews of Mass Customization books (Most wildly out of date)
http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/03/weekend-reading-mass-customization-round-up.php Smart report on the surprising number of European mass customization companies.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/start/2010/03/is-america-on-the-verge-of-a-co-creation-invasion.php
MakerFaire = DisneyWorld for Nerds
The way the MakerFaire organizers set up the event strongly reminded me of Disney's tendency to break their parks up into distinct lands, e.g. Fantasy Land, Frontier Land, etc.Disney Map
Maker Faire Map
Funnily enough they would map onto each other pretty well. The steampunks from Make: could hang out in Liberty Square, The Tesla folks in Tomorrow Land, and both have a tendency to have gift shops and overpriced food around every corner!
Maker Faire Map
The Future of ZCorp. One Word. Plastics.
ZCorp is the only 3D printer manufacturer whose technology can print 3D objects in full color. The drawback is that their material is plaster based and relatively weak compared to the plastics used by other machines. ZCorp has remedied this shortcoming by licensing a new technology. The specifications and results are impressive and is an exciting development in the world of additive fabrication.
Open Source Hardware - Art School Edition
There has been a lot of excitement about the business potential of Open Source hardware. Time Bomb Kustoms is doing a sort of art school version of this. They sell custom products, "merch", and importantly supplies for you to customize your own products. The economics of this business are a bit different than those of a company like Adafruit, but the general sense is the same with more of an emphasis on "Critique" rather than "Compile".
