3-D Printers: Who Are Their Customers?

The additive manufacturing market might be small today, but it's scaling up incredibly quickly.

The consolidated 3-D printing industry did $2.2 billion of revenue in 2012. That figure is estimated to grow to $3.7 billion by 2015 and $6.5 billion by 2019. With an overall industry annual growth rate of nearly 17%, there will certainly be some winners that emerge from this hurricane-force tailwind at their backs.

As the majority of this industry's growth will come in later years, strategic decisions being made by the major players today could have a huge influence on their future profitability. This introduces an interesting question: What type of customers are the 3-D printing companies targeting?

In the following video, Rule Breakers analyst Simon Erickson digs into the 3-D printing market and reviews the competitive positioning of three Motley Fool recommendations: Stratasys , 3D Systems , and ExOne .

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The article 3-D Printers: Who Are Their Customers? originally appeared on Fool.com.

Simon Erickson owns shares of 3D Systems and Stratasys. The Motley Fool recommends 3D Systems, ExOne, and Stratasys. The Motley Fool owns shares of 3D Systems, ExOne, and Stratasys and has the following options: short January 2014 $36 calls on 3D Systems and short January 2014 $20 puts on 3D Systems. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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