Microsoft Retail Stores Expand the “MakerBot Experience” to Additional U.S. Stores
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — August 7, 2013 — This summer, MakerBot® Replicator® 2 Desktop 3D Printers have been making appearances at select Microsoft retail stores on the West Coast. As of August 5th, the “MakerBot Experience” will expand, adding 15 additional Microsoft Stores across the country to the mix.
The “MakerBot Experience” is a hands-on 3D printing demonstration on MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printers inside select Microsoft retail stores. Microsoft customers get to see 3D printing in action as well as purchase a MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer and MakerBot PLA Filament.
“We’re thrilled to offer the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer and our MakerBot PLA Filament in Microsoft Stores,” said Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot. “We’ve seen tremendous interest and enthusiasm at the three initial ‘MakerBot Experience’ stores. Rolling the program out to 15 additional Microsoft Stores supercharges our mission to bring 3D printing to more people.”
In June, MakerBot and Microsoft announced their collaboration at Microsoft’s BUILD conference, where MakerBot unveiled a 3D printer driver for Microsoft’s Windows 8.1 3D print pipeline. The companies also announced that MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printers would be available at select Microsoft retail stores and on microsoftstore.com.
“3D printing is a significant technological innovation, and we want all our customers to experience it first-hand, to learn how they can use and benefit from it in their own lives,” said David McAughan, chief operating officer for Microsoft retail stores. “The relationship with MakerBot has been very successful so far, and Microsoft looks forward to seeing the ‘MakerBot Experience’ rolled out into more stores.”
“We want to empower more people to create and make things, and working with a technology leader like Microsoft helps further our mission,” said Pettis. “Together we are bringing the tools to innovate and invent to the world in ways never before possible.”
The MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer is MakerBot’s fourth generation 3D printer and one of the easiest and fastest tools for making professional-quality models and prototypes. The MakerBot Replicator 2 features 100-micron layer resolution and offers a 410 cubic inch build volume (11.2” L x 6.0” W x 6.1” H), setting a new standard in desktop 3D printing, and is fueling the Next Industrial Revolution with it’s 3D Printing Ecosystem. The MakerBot 3D Ecosystem drives the accessibility and rapid adoption of their desktop 3D printers. It includes Thingiverse.com, the largest collection of downloadable digital designs for making physical objects, and which is empowered by a growing community of makers and creators. The MakerBot 3D Ecosystem also includes MakerWare software, MakerCare service, MakerBot Filament, the MakerBot Retail Store, the MakerBot 3D Photo Booth, and strategic partnerships with Autodesk, Adafruit, Nokia, OUYA, MoMA and Amazon. MakerBot recently announced it will further extend its 3D Ecosystem with the MakerBot Digitizer desktop 3D scanner.
About MakerBot
Founded in 2009, Brooklyn-based MakerBot is the leader in desktop 3D printing. MakerBot Desktop 3D Printers are used by engineers, designers, researchers, and people who just like to make things. The MakerBot Replicator Desktop 3D Printer has been named Popular Mechanics’ “Overall Winner” for best 3D printer, and has won numerous awards, including being honored as one of Time Magazine’s Best Inventions of 2012; “Best Emerging Tech” at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show; Popular Mechanics’ Editor’s Choice Award; the Popular Science Product of the Year; a TechCrunch Crunchies Award for best hardware start-up; and a Fast Company 2012 Innovation by Design Award. MakerBot was named “One of the World’s Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Consumer Electronics” by Fast Company and was highlighted in Entrepreneur magazine’s “100 Brilliant Companies.” The company has been featured on the cover of WIRED and in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Inc., Worth, The Colbert Report, Fast Company, Engadget, Make: Magazine, Rolling Stone, Time.com, Entrepreneur, CNN, Financial Times, National Public Radio, Vogue Italia and many others. Follow MakerBot at MakerBot.com.
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