i.materialise Japan
The Belgian 3D printing outfit, i.materialise, are targeting the vast Japanese market for their host of 3D printing services.
Of the big five consumer 3D printing services; Shapeways, Sculpteo, Ponoko, Kraftwurx, i.materialise is the first to launch a Japanese specific website and simultaneously a Japanese production base.
i.materialise have obviously spotted a gap in the market, which considering the Japanese penchant for technology seems a strange gap. We frequently see stories of anthropomorphised 3D printed dolls/chocolate/gummy stories coming out of the Land of the Rising Sun but rarely do we get news of a big 3D printing innovation or adoption from one of the big companies like Sony or Panasonic. So perhaps Japan is ripe for a 3D printing service just like i.materialise?
i.materialise offers one of the widest range of materials available and they’re very proud to make those available to the Japanese market, “We want to give people the best service. The Japanese website is a milestone in the i.materialise history. Everyone deserves the best service and to serve our Japanese customers better, we're providing a customer service in their own language”, reads the blurb from the company.
What with a potential customer base of 120 million we doubt that i.materialise will be the last of the 3D printing service big guns to head east.
