If that happens, then many less skilled practitioners of the art will start messing up said devices with parts that just don’t fit as well as they should.”

Trial and error are how wild ideas become viable realities. I will love living in a time when I can print a custom kevlar infused rubber housing for my laptop or luminescent ceramic amalgam keys for my gauntlet communicator. The future isn’t that far away.

And the current point of this is not to create cases as durable as the factory-provided ones– granted, that isn’t a likely outcome of most if not all attempts. Rather, it’s to see what the 3D printing community does with this little model, and process the results. From there… who knows? The true beauty in this lies in what we haven’t even seen yet. ;)

I’m not letting the naysayers bother me. Many people will simply choose not to bother understanding the motivation and potential here and that’s fine. The release of model files was directed at those driving this sea change, not at consumers (yet) and definitely not at doubters.

3D print-on-demand providers have jumped all over this, as have experienced hobbyists. They will not only play around with what Nokia has provided and develop some cool customizations, but also help Nokia see where products can be better designed to accomodate the growing reality of democratized manufacturing. Already that feedback is being factored into a soon-to-come second release of altered models.

Also, cost is not a real issue for anyone choosing to get involved with this. It is experimentation, innovation.

It’s a very good thing that cynicism has not been successful at stopping other historic developments that we now take for granted. ;)

Printers here:
http://cubify.com/cube/index.aspx?tb_cube_learn

http://successfulworkplace.com/2012/11/05/3d-printing-and-the-end-of-made-in-china/

I didn’t check if that 11.50$ included shipping, probably not, but still ok price for a unique self designed back shell or case and I don’t think they have to be taking loss to be able to sell it for that.

I checked prices for ABS and PLA. http://www.3ders. org/pricecompare/
1. Material starts from 14$/kg but some are more expensive. Let’s say it’s 40$/kg which might be closer to the average.
2. According to Wikipedia, PLA weights around 1300kg/m3 en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Polylactic_acid , which is 1.3g/cm3.
3. Unicorn case was about 15cm3 making it weight 19.5g.

= 19.5g with 40$/kg it makes material of the case cost 0.78$.

If they would use same machines and material as hobbyists and sell it for 11.50$ + shipping they still would make > 10$ after material costs. Depending on how much they ship these and how labour intensive the work is, they probably are still making profit after all expenses.

They make a good alternative for someone who doesn’t need 3D prints that often or for someone who wants to get something made out material other than basic one color plastic. On the other hand, if you can save more than 10$/order by printing stuff yourself and can have your piece ready in hours instead of waiting for days for it to be shipped, it soon makes sense to buy a cheap printer of your own, or share one with people you know.

I might have miscalculated something. If that’s the case let me know.