According to David Chen, a senior research analyst of Taiwan's MIC (Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute), an ICT industry research institute based in Taipei, the 3D printer market value reached around US$2.15 billion in 2012, growing 22.2% year-on-year. "The market value is estimated to arrive at approximately US$4.45 billion in 2016", said David Chen.

In 1980s, 3D printer technology lured investment from a slew of European and US companies seeking for innovation, including 3D Systems, Stratasys, DTM, Helisys, and EOS. Driven by several capital funds in recent years, the vast majority of companies have put more R&D resources into 3D printing technology, facilitating such technology to progress much further. A wide range of materials can be applied in the 3D printing process, such as metals, ceramics, resins, plastics, nylon, PVC, ABS plastic, and wax. This has led to an expansion in the 3D printer application market. The 3D printing technology can help manufacture metal modules of product lines, daily personalized goods, automobile and airplane parts, medical apparatus, mechanical gadgets, consumer goods, jewelry designs, architectural and toy models to eliminate traditional and complicated production processes.

3D printers provide a faster and automatic means to make a diverse range of integrated 3D models and help to effectively reduce manufacturing processes, shorten R&D time and speed up product time-to-market. Owing to the abovementioned advantages, more new entrants have set foot into this area, including Envision Tec and Beijing Tiertime. Meanwhile, many governments around the world also express support for 3D printers.

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About MIC

Market Intelligence & Consulting Institute (MIC), based in Taipei, Taiwan, was founded in 1987. MIC is Taiwan's premier IT industry research and consulting firm providing intelligence, in-depth analysis, and strategic consulting services on global IT product and technology trends, focusing on markets and industries in Asia-Pacific. MIC is part of the Institute for Information Industry.https://mic.iii.org.tw/english