Microsoft Reveals Its 3D Printing Strategy For Windows 8.1 103
colinneagle writes "At the Inside 3D Printing conference in Chicago, Microsoft senior product manager Jesse McGatha discussed why Microsoft recently announced that Windows 8.1 will support 3D printing, even giving a demo of a sample app for printing a design file. But in the presentation it became clear that Microsoft is capitalizing on the recent hype of 3D printing and positioning itself to capitalize on the future consumer markets for 3D printing. However, a Gartner analyst recently warned that 3D printing may not become the household consumer item that some are making it out to be. So, by capitalizing on the buzz, Microsoft may attract makers, innovators, and even enterprise customers that use 3D printing, but avoids any risk if the consumer market fails to reach its potential."
Not to worry (Score:5, Insightful)
Microsoft won't kill this dead before it ever gets out of the gate by making sure that your printers checks with a central database for against anything that could be patent infringing. However, in the event that something could be patent infringing they will offer a service in which they will offer you an immediate license to print your part. Since you license is a legal contract it must be tied to your Microsoft account which will require all of your personal information including you credit card information.
In exchange for Microsoft providing the very valuable service of ensuring that you don't violate someones patent in the privacy of your own home they will extract a 30% royalty of any transaction. The thing store will track all of your purchases in order to make it easier for you (and anyone else) to know what your printing or browsing. They can then offer you "valuable" offers from marketing partners on similar services.
Therefore you can now say it is possible to be financially screwed by Microsoft while making a Microsoft approved screw while screwed by their marketing partners all in the privacy of your own home all while your not getting screwed!