Is there more to 3D Systems' new-look website than meets the eye?

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Industry giant 3D Systems has started the week with a fresh-look website - and about time too.

The slick 3D printing juggernaut's new internet platform has been built with a modern colour scheme that is a far cry from the dated navy block layout of its previous web offering, nodding subliminally to tech market stalwart Apple's own aesthetic and pigment-challenged colour scheme.

Now, the industry, users and investors can peruse the easy-to-navigate website that has been set up in uniform white and grey, complete with new photography and graphics.

The site also encourages visitors to explore the company's social media reach, as a line of nine dove-coloured icons offers to take you to other platforms including YouTube, Twitter and Google+ - reminding visitors that the company is on the ball when it comes to zeitgeist and establishing its presence online.

But why has the company chosen this exact time to upgrade from its previously (conspicuously) dated website?

The launch of 3D Systems' new website has been expected, with we at TCT Towers even being given an insider heads-up about a web revamp months ago, only the new facade never appeared.

3D Systems' chosen time to re-launch its website came at the end of a long week in 3D printing, which included arguably the industry's biggest news story of the month - the announcement that MakerBot's mystery acquirer is in fact Stratasys - 3D Systems' closest market rival.

3D Systems' enjoyed excellent first-quarter results earlier this year on the back of its own string of successful buyouts, but Stratasys appears to be catching the company up. This is due to the fact that although it has made significantly fewer deals than its competitor, Stratasys' acquisitions carry more market clout than many of 3D Systems' deals with smaller firms - a fact that has not gone unnoticed by insiders and industry commentators.

So perhaps 3D Systems' decision to launch this new website is an indication that the company is beginning to take an inward look on expanding and evolving as the 3D printing market continues to gain momentum, with the company getting its own house in order before bringing more businesses into the 3D Systems family?

Either way, the MakerBot acquisition likens Stratasys ever so slightly to Aesop's tortoise to 3D Systems' hare - and we all know how that fable ended.