A report issued by Globes, Israel's Business Arena, on Thursday last is starting to cause a stir within the 3D printing industry — and rightly so. The report states that: "Sources inform ''Globes'' that the company has laid off its entire staff of 30 employees and entered receivership."
This is coming as somewhat of a shock to many, in that the company had only recently reported significant investment followed by a pretty full-on marketing campaign. Unfortunately, if the report is accurate, the investment did not fully manifest and the company had no where else to go. If this all bears out, then I will be sorry — I could see the very real potential of this 3D printing technology but I do believe that Solido had misplaced aspirations and missed a trick. This middle of the road technology was above average in its capabilities. When I say "middle of the road" I am referring to where is was positioned within the market ie ahead of the RapMan, Makerbot genre and behind Dimension, ProJet et al. Unfortunately, rather than picking one side of the road on which to productively compete, Solido tried to be both. User feedback on the Solido 300 is very positive, and I have seen some of the models that can be produced and was impressed. However, I reported on my dismay at the company's deceptive approach to its pricing last year. Hidden costs never go down well in the long run!!
I haven't seen any direct impact to Solido USA nor to Solido's many independent vendors in the western hemisphere. Most vendors are principally CAD dealers who sell the Solido SD300 as a sideline, so they wouldn't disappear if there's a crisis at Solido Ltd in Israel.
ReplyDeleteCurrently there's enough inventory for them to maintain the status quo. That might eventually change, but they've got sufficient breathing room to handle it gracefully. My dealer made a reassuring commitment to keep me supported, so I'm perfectly content to leave the worrying to them.
So what's happening at Solido Ltd in Israel? There's more than a hint of discontinuity between the Globes story and last year's glowing announcements by Solido, Fortissimo, and Shenhav & Co. I'd conjecture there's another side to it, a deeper dispute that hasn't been made public. We may never know for sure.