MakerBot lays off 20 percent of its staff

Seems significant, and they are closing their retail stores.

I have a Makerbot Replicator/Dual which was probably the last fully open source printer they made, and is available from FlashForge[1] boxes which sells a clone of it [2] for $1,000 less than I paid for mine.

The difference in quality and speed been that printer and Makerbot's latest and greatest "5th Gen" printer isn't enough to justify paying nearly $2,000 more for it, and they don't support dual extrusion any more, just when the open community is getting some seriously interesting multi-extrusion ideas going. (beyond the simple two hot ends next to each other).

From a 3D printer perspective they are under powered and over priced, which has never been a position of strength for any product to build brand.

So its sad to see them fade but not unexpected.

[1] http://www.ff3dp.com/

[2] Replicator/Dual clone -- http://www.ff3dp.com/#!product/prd2/1102918641/