That's exactly how I see it. I am even thinking about introducing 3D printing in school with the connections I have. A few simple modifications and the UM could be made "school safe" (enclosing/locking the build area).
Ian, keep the war references to a minimum please. Germans are (still) quite sensitive about it.
Ian, keep the war references to a minimum please. Germans are (still) quite sensitive about it.
Being a native German this came immediately into my mind:
Ok, ok - now back to topic...
**g** no YOU started it!!!
But back to topic. Has Ultimaker any intentions to deal with Saturn or MediaMarkt. A few of my relatives are thinking about getting their own 3D-printer and that Conrad-Printer doesn't seem too reliable to me.
I alway thought that 3D-printing is being hyped these days (is that the correct word for it?). If people who take their first shot at rapid-prototyping and spend much money on a non reliable printer, which gives them bad performance they will never again try another one.
This will ruin the market for ultimaker and also have a great impact on the... well... let's call it "maker-movement"...
I think it is UMs duty to save german users from cheap printers and offer them inexpensive, good ones instead.
Well I guess they have quite some markets to choose from. Germany is next door to Netherlands and the'd need evangelists, shops and over all a strong presence there. Then there is the education market (which I think has great potential).
I am sure they have spotted these markets. Let's hope they will act wise and not "loose" to other emerging brands.
OK I'm irish but i have been living and working in germany for a few years now..
I think there are a handful of people very willing and wanting to helping ultimaker in germany. I also think ultimaker have realised that germany is a massive monster market for their product.
I think.... and this is only my small irish opinion... because ultimaker is selling more and is expanding.. that the new layers of fresh managers responsible for new markets are very very.... careful... they dont want to burn their toes just starting out and they are taking a step back and looking at what is the strongest most reliable option for ultimaker in each market sector.
The tiny problem with that is... ultimaker is growing but if you compare them in scale to some of the 3d printers coming out of American.. Germany or china of course... they are still relatively small..
Can they afford to play this delicate safe game so long... possibly not...
Ultimaker has at the moment a glowing momentum.. new product.. very popular and amazing community... whats the old English phrase.. strike when the iron is hot ??...
But managers will be managers and they will first... be careful and protect themselves with a thousand safeties before touching anything new.
Maybe this system is the best ?? maybe they have quietly decided they don't want to be the biggest ? maybe their slow fortification strategy might pay off ? a happy little productive dutch company... i just hope the sharks don't see them ;-)
Ian
Hey Ian, why not ask Sander? I don't think they have many managers yet. They are smart people, look at what they achieved with so few people. They'll do the right thing. If they need evangelists, they will know where to find us
i don't want to preach !
i just find it a very interesting thing to sit back and watch a company develop and grow in a quite hard market environment.
I cross my fingers and toes that they succeed and flourish ! :-) and maybe more importantly stay a company that merits survival !
Ian :-) :-)
May I get involved in this topic?
Given the fact I may be an official and this is gossip?
:ph34r:
We do have managers, several. I am community manager for instance.
And we also have people responsible for sales etc. Obviously.
We do are a small but very rapidly growing company. We are expanding our ways as we have (recently) got sales partners in UK and Germany (iGo3D). Germany being the second country being honored with a sales partner (proof of our focus) you could feel acknowledged.
Obviously, we are aware that it is a rapidly growing market. But we do not want to rush into collaborations or partnerships. Those are important decisions and need to be made with care.
We are working on a lot of plans, and 2014 will shine light on a lot of them
If you want to put yourself forward as an Ultimaker-evangelist contact me!
We can discuss your ideas and ours, and see how we can go from there.
Our focus is not on playing it slow, but it is on playing it right. And work with capable people who
have the same standards as we do.
is it true that iGo3D in Germany has... one single store by the end of the year 2013....?
careful is very important and I greatly respect that... but having one shop selling ultimakers as your German reseller... that's like me tickling a giant elephant with a feather and seeing if he turns his head... LOL :-)
Ian :-)
mmmm I think I need a bigger feather... ;-)
I am not saying they are exclusive nor that we consider Germany to be covered.
And thanks Ian, Finally.. the boarders of Germany are made clear 
.. ( a joke comes to mind ).
HEHEHE..... oh if only I was not in germany right now... ohh the wonderful jokes I could make .. :wink:
Ian :smile:
Hey Sander,
I know you guys must be giving this idea some thought. But if you need an example for a company that already implements it well, look at Unity3D. They have an are on their site dedicated to evangelism (http://evangelism.unity3d.com/).
Quick, someone is about to beat you at 3D printing in schools (german):
interesting.....
I do know ultimaker are making moves into Schools in Holland and other countries but.. I guess as ultimaker has handed over complete german operations to their reseller... and i guess the reseller is just to busy at the moment to focus on german schools.. that market will simply be lost to ultimaker...... a pity because schools means two things... selling a product and educating young kids... that in my mind would be two very important things to ultimkaker :-)
If they really have handed over everything to their German reseller (and if igo3d is the one and only) it might be a big mistake.
I have been pretty annoyed by igo3d several times and will avoid them in future - if possible. If there will be another supplier for innofil in Germany I don't need them at all.
Ultimaker needs a *real* reseller like Reichelt or may be Conrad and not this Yuppie-bling-bling-shiny-new-star-company which is focussed on having TV and newspaper interviews but is unable to deliver two rolls of filament without mistakes nor having spare parts for the printers and passing you directly to Ultimaker Holland if one has problems with the printer.
I have been in their shop several times, and from this experience I can say their arrogance (of all the staff) and incompetence (of many staff members) is outstanding.
just my 2 cents...
Hi Onkel,
Thank you for your feedback, it is much appreciated.
From our experience we are very satisfied with their efforts.
They are going a good job making Ultimaker visible and for what I know they also have the best intentions
when it comes to customer service.
Of course I do now know about your experience, and I am sorry to hear if it wasn't positive.
Could it be that whatever spare part you needed from them, they did not have it at the time?
They do not have all the spare parts on stock, they only have several to do some technical support if necessary at the scene. I am not sure if the same goes for filament (I can imagine them also selling non-ultimaker filament), so I can't
say much about that. If you are indeed having or had problems and they could not solve them, I think they were right in redirecting you to us. We have a very capable technical support staff and obviously this amazing community!
I think maybe igo3ds intentions are in the right place... but its like placing a happy little bunny playing in a green field.. and the big business is racing along the german autobahn in the next.
A handful of bigger companies than ultimaker, are doing big work at the moment to chop up the german market and setup their sales monopolies like most business in germany does... by the time ultimaker realises that the little fluffy tv bunny hastnt managed to to bite ultimakers name into germany.. it will be... tooooooo late.....
And then the big nasties will come down like a ton of bricks on the beautiful ultimaker people....
Makerbot have already started talking about.. Fortress Europe... I cant imagine them just leaving UM to play in the backgarden of Europe...
sometimes the happy bunnies have to bite hard and... first ! :-)
Ian
.. have you seen Monty Python?
I was thinking about the exact same scene from monty python after reading lan's post ^^
Hi Sander,
I had really big hopes on igo3d as I work pretty close to them and it is always nice to meet real people and talk to them.
But I never felt welcome in their shop. They always gave me the feeling that they are happy when I leave the shop allthough I told them that I want to buy a printer - finally I bought it at Reichelt as they had some in stock an igo3d had none.
In one point you are absolutely right (from the Ultimaker point of view): They are pushing Ultimaker in every sales conversation to the limit. Actually it is the only 3d printer they really recommend.
I had to learn that this company isn't interested in one single customer... the service is really bad and I know (from PMs) that other members here had bad experiences too - so I am not the only one.
I tried to reach them many times by phone and mail with almost no success. My last request is about one week ago - no answer. As I had some problems with my UM 1 they redirected me to you - which was in fact really good. Your support was very fast and helpful - all my problems were wiped out in 48 hours. Before contacting you I tried to reach them by phone for 4 days without success.
There were many more problems which i don't want to write down here...
did igo3d use that video in their business presentation model.. when ultimaker decided to hand a small little country like GERMANY to them... LOLLLL
I wont keeping going on this topic...
Last word from me is.. i live in germany... i go shopping in germany.. i talk to germans about 3d printing all the time.. igo3d is a posh little shop in the north selling units... but its the wrong strategy for germany.. just live here for a few years and you can see that.. german business is... a MONOPOLY SYSTEM.. when the big guys have all there markets cut up in the next year or two.. and ultimaker decided they want to grown and develope into Europe... guess what... they will be banging on a big metal KRUPP STAHL door... and it wont open....
Ian
ArunC posted a topic in UltiMaker Cura,
.thumb.jpeg.0b7a05eafc09add17b8338efde5852e9.jpeg)
Dustin posted a topic in Firmware,
Recommended Posts
ian 32
This is for me really interesting...
Germany is one of the biggest potential markets for ultimaker and if ultimaker does expand in a big way in the next two years... they need to be jumping down heavy in germany now... and not later..
Feet on the ground !!
Just look at MediaMarkt and Saturn in germany,, they are all now stocking under 2000 euro 3d printers and guess what... most of them are amazingly useless and crap... Best example is the Fabbster thing.. with a MADE IN GERMANY sticker.. german companies and schools are buying them by the crate full... and the product is worse that 10 day old dog poo !!...... ultimaker.....?? .... I guess their one current reseller in germany with monster out of this world dreams of opening 14 new shops from a starting point of 1 next year is their golden weapon against the german 3D Printer Wave (neue Druck Welle :wink: .. all i can say as a keen obersver is ...... hold on to your hat's gentlemen !.... Its going to get windy ! :wink:
Ian :wink:
Link to post
Share on other sites