What makes a burgeoning field/emerging market? Is it growth in the public eye or the private sector? Is it the use of buzzwords only associated with that field? Is it the abundance of prototypes and new innovations to push the industry forward? Is it the corporate support and academic support it receives from different academic sectors? Usually not one, but a synergy of these that creates the demand that must be responded to.
Makerbot and Stratys merger should make for an interesting industry landscape. The Maker community may not like because it gives fewer choices and possibly less flexibiltiy. However they are creating many homebrew options that should keep the industry diverse. Most would not like to see the opposite where we have the Samsung, Apple and Google of 3-d printing (each with their own standards and special features that don’t necessarily interact with each other)
Another industry that may interwine itself with 3-d printing is wearable computers. I recently went to a Google glass explorer meetup where I was supposed to be the next tech advancement. As Wearable computers gain acceptance ( I personally have at least one, a smartwatch and activity tracker on my person 90% of my day). Connects with smart phone and using CPU of it’s own ability to record, navigate and query many of google’s services. Melanie McGee was the organizer and was the one chosen by google for the explorer program. During the meetup she gave a brief history over her interactions and protoypes herself. We know from the tech boom of the 90s that growth comes in spurts. I doubt we will see an explosion but rather a vine like expansion.