And say hello to the breakthrough technology that's launching a 21st-century industrial revolution right here in America. Business Insider calls it "the next trillion dollar industry."
The
suits on Wall Street think this idea is too good to be true. But the
guys who brought you the iPod and Amazon.com are already on board. You
still have time to join them, if you act fast...
Dear Fellow Investor,
Tell me if this sounds crazy. I just saw a violin appear out of thin air and play a Bach sonata.
And that's not the half of it.
Right before that, I saw someone cram a milk jug into a metal tube and
pull a shoelace out at the other end. Heck, when I sat down to my desk
this morning, I saw an anatomically perfect human kidney spun together
on a cotton candy wheel. A surgeon used it to perform a successful
transplant.
You're right. All of those things do sound crazy! But all of them are real.
And technology experts are convinced that this is just the beginning.
Not
just hackers, hobbyists, and over-caffeinated engineering professors,
mind you. We're talking some of the biggest players in the big ideas
business.
They saw the same incredible video demonstrations that I did, and decided they just had to get a piece of the action.
- Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos joined an investment group that plowed $10 million of venture capital into this game changer.
- Google rushed their development team to make a software app for it.
- Hewlett Packard cut a deal with one of the two main hardware makers.
- The Consumer Electronics Association featured it at their 2012 extravaganza in Las Vegas, where it "stole the show."
- The Pirate Bay -- the world's most powerful digital copyright cheater -- released a manifesto declaring that intellectual property law is now obsolete and predicting the death of the factory as we know it. All because this "impossible" technology is now not only possible, but affordable.
Naturally, there are skeptics.
"People Will Never Buy
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When it comes to truly disruptive ideas that force us to rethink our basic assumptions about everything, there always are.
Most
"reasonable" people thought the telephone, the light bulb, the radio,
the television, the personal computer, and the cell phone would never be
commercially successful. (See the box on the right for a good laugh.)
But that's the thing about "reasonable" people. When they imagine the future, they only see the present.
The truth of the matter is, the world we enjoy today is built on technologies that imagined a new future.
Technologies that transformed ordinary people's lives by making them easier and better.
And that's exactly what this invention does.
Analysts in the know are calling it
"THE NEXT TRILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY."
Right now, only a few forward thinking investors understand how truly enormous this change will be.
But
when we're looking at an industry that's sustained a mind-blowing 26.2%
annual growth rate for more than 20 years… how much longer do you think
that can last?
Look, I've never been the kind of guy who gets caught up in the "next big thing" hype.
My name is Mark Brooks, and I publish an award-winning financial newsletter called Motley Fool Stock Advisor.
Believe
me, I've seen a lot of "next big things" come along in my day. So I
don't blame you if you want to look before you leap.
Here
at The Motley Fool, we don't chase after hype. We look for smart
investments that have outstanding long-term growth potential.
We think for ourselves, and we think you should too.
So it took me a lot of research before I clearly understood how 3D printing was going to change our world in a profound way.
More than anything, it was one conversation that changed my mind...
That's why I urge you to take the next few minutes to read this report from cover to cover.
In
plain language, it breaks down this incredible technology and how it
will transform everything about our economy -- from manufacturing, to
transportation, to healthcare, to defense, to education, to... you name
it.
You'll learn about the three visionary companies that are destroying
the S&P 500, and the one man who knows exactly when and how to
invest in them.
What People Are Saying about The Motley Fool
"Sharp, up to the minute financial advice."
-- Wired
"Solid information for individual investors."
-- The Washington Post
"An ethical oasis"
-- The Economist
"You can find vast amounts of help and information here, all written in plain English instead of Wall Street jargon."
-- Fortune |
He's
up 210.0% since making his first investment in this technology in 2008.
The rest of the market returned only 15.3%. He made 77.9% with his
second 3D printing investment in 2009, even better than the 40.3% return
that everyone else has made since then. And he's made an incredible
123.9% in just a few weeks by adding the third and final piece of this
trillion dollar puzzle in January. (The S&P grew 8.7%.)
He's the one who convinced me this technology is for real. And that I needed the right plan if I wanted to invest in it.
What can I say? I'm a believer now.
So I was nodding my head in agreement when I saw the following headline on the newsstand at the airport the other day. It was in Forbes. It said this invention...
"Will Change Absolutely Everything
It Touches"
Are you ready to find out what it is?
I thought so. And I'd hate to keep you in suspense any longer.
It all started in the early 1980s, at a small laboratory in Southern California's canyon country.
That
was right around the time that Hewlett Packard and Epson were marketing
the first commercially successful desktop printers.
Skeptics at the time said no office would ever buy its own printer.
Then they said that it made no sense to put one on an employee's desk.
Then they said that nobody would want one in their home. That color printing would never work. Or photo printing...
But think about how much desktop printing has changed our working lives. Do you remember mimeographs? Carbon paper?
Secretaries?
Meanwhile, at that lab in the sun-kissed Santa Clarita Valley, researchers were already laying the groundwork for the next revolution.
This
bold advertisement predicted that desktop printers would be an $11.84
billion market by 1985. The estimate turned out to be too conservative.
The market for 3D printers was over $1 billion in 2011... how big could
it become by 2015? And how much could you profit?
What was it?
If you think about it, a printer is really just a nozzle that moves
from side to side, spitting out or pressing ink onto a two-dimensional
surface -- a piece of paper.
It's not really the ink or the paper that matter, but the precision of
the device, and the computer program that guides it to lay down the
desired pattern.
That same computer software also powers more advanced two-dimensional printing technologies, like laser printers.
And if we can print in two dimensions...there's no scientific reason why we can't also print in three dimensions.
(Click "play" on the video below and you'll see what I mean!)
Yes, there are 3D printers. You just saw a real one in action.
And just like 2D printing did, 3D printing is exceeding expectations by rapidly becoming both cheaper and better.
Machines that cost more than $100,000 a decade ago are now selling for $1,299.
And they can now print with more than 99 different materials. Not just
high quality plastics, many of which are completely recyclable (like
milk jugs) or biodegradable. But also some of the most durable and
useful physical materials we use in the "analog" world, like wood,
glass, rubber, steel, and concrete. Some printers can even handle
biological materials like human kidney cells. Or composites of more than
two materials that create special properties like heat resistance. Some
can make three dimensional objects from ordinary printer paper and even
chocolate.
But who would want to print in 3D?
How about an architect building a model? Or a product designer making a prototype? Or a dentist casting a mold?
These are some of the professionals who are already gaining a competitive edge by using 3D printing technology.
(One dentist in Belgium even fabricated an entire titanium jaw
and successfully implanted it in an 83-year old patient. He says "there
are no limits" to what 3D printing can do in the medical field: "We can
replicate bones and even make them stronger than the original. It's
like the Six Million Dollar Man.")
I know, I know.
As soon as I heard "3D" I thought it was just a gimmick.
I
remember those ridiculous blue and red glasses we wore at the drive-ins
in the 1970s. I remember when everyone was talking about "virtual
reality" in the 1990s. And I've heard all the hype about today's 3D
movies and 3D televisions (personally, they just make me dizzy).
But when it comes to printing, 3D actually makes sense.
In fact, it makes MORE sense than 2D printing does. I'm being completely serious!
Think
about it... do we really need to print paper documents anymore? We can
scan and email anything. I mean, I suppose we'll always physically sign
and stamp our most important documents, like college diplomas and
property deeds.
Our world just isn't made of paper anymore. And really, it never was.
Our world is made of physical objects with three-dimensional "resolution."
But
right now, the way we create, manipulate, and transport those objects
is just as primitive as dispatching a messenger on horseback with a
scroll and a wax seal.
And that's all about to change.
Scientists
at Drexel University in Philadelphia are using 3D technology to create
exact scale-model replicas of ancient dinosaur bones, a breakthrough
that was never possible before. Another group of researchers is making
shells for "homeless" hermit crabs. (They like the printed shells even
better than the real thing.)
The
Air Force's new F-35 fighter jets use components created with 3D
printers. The process can make complex structures that were previously
impossible to manufacture.
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Of course, paleontologists and hermit crabs don't pay big money for their 3D printing needs. But guess who does:
The United States Air Force.
They're using the technology to fabricate sophisticated parts for their new F-35 fighter jets. Rolls Royce is using them too.
And
better precision is just one of many advantages that 3D printing
fabrication holds over the traditional manufacturing process.
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It's Faster...
with 3D printing, the delay between design and fabrication is now a few
hours instead of a few weeks. Motorcycle maker Ducati cut 20 months (or
70%) off its usual development time for a new racing engine.
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It's Cheaper...
companies that use 3D printing don't need to tie up capital investing
in expensive tools and dies. They can also eliminate shipping costs. A
small supplier to Nike called Union Footwear got a leg up on its bigger
competitors by faxing its design bid in 3D.
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It Encourages Innovation...
by eliminating the delays and costs created by traditional
"manufacturability" constraints, 3D printers allow designers to change
their minds and implement a new idea at any time. An Ohio company that
supplies crash test dummies to automakers is using the technology to
produce new shapes and sizes that respond to client needs that can
evolve by the day.
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It's Less Wasteful...
traditional manufacturing is "subtractive," discarding up to 90% of the
initial blocks of raw material. 3D printing is an "additive" process
that builds objects from the ground up, layer by layer. One architect is
even using it to make entire buildings.
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It's More Durable...
designers can tweak these "additive" printers to produce denser (but
lighter) layers of material than would usually be possible. The
Smithsonian is using 3D printers to digitize their entire collection;
the statue of Thomas Jefferson you see in the National Museum of
American history is actually a 3D replica of the original brass statue.
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It's Customer Friendly...
3D printing allows for a level of product customization and
personalization that has never before been possible. Shoppers are
already ordering lamps, jewelry, sunglasses, and even bikini swimsuits,
all made to their exact specifications. (I know I won't miss having to
try on shoes at the mall.)
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Karl Marx said the problem with capitalism is that it makes "everything solid melt into air."
I think we all know the problem with Karl Marx !!
But it turns out he was right about this one thing.
Actually, his statement doesn't go far enough.
With three dimensional printing...
There is no longer any important difference between a computerized design that exists in "the cloud" and
a real, physical thing.
If you remember the old Star Trek
shows, which take place in the distant future of the 23rd century, a
device that could print physical objects from computerized designs was
called a "replicator."
Incredibly, this science fiction is now fact.
And here's how smart 21st century capitalists like you and me can take this real-world replicator straight to the bank.
While everyone else will be left behind, wondering how they missed out on something that makes so much sense.
If a physical object is a software code, then... there are no longer economies of scale in manufacturing.
In
other words, it won't make sense any more to pay Chinese factory
workers to make 100 million duplicates of the same product. Better to
pay American designers to make 10,000 different products specially tailored to individual customers
-- in the exact size and style they want to buy. Products they can
receive in the mail, or print out at Home Depot, FedEx Office, Wal-Mart,
or whichever retailers are smart enough to embrace this technology
first.
If
a physical object is a software code, then... everyone from an
aerospace engineer to an ice sculptor is really a computer programmer
creating digital designs.
And the market for those designs will be just like today's market for
music, movies, and books. You'll have the iTunes store, Amazon.com, and
other legitimate download vendors on one side of the law, and a thousand
fugitive "pirate bays" on the other. Your grandchild's Happy Meal toy
will be scanned onto your smart phone at the cash register and it will
be finished printing before you get home from the drive-through.
Finally, if a physical object is a software code, then... the
companies that make the best design software and the companies that can
offer a comprehensive package of hardware, input materials, and
servicing stand to make HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS.
Just like Hewlett Packard, Epson, and Canon have made on 2D printers. And here's how...
What did you pay for the desktop printer you own now? Probably not all that much.
OK, now here's a better question. What did you pay for the cartridges?
And how much money does your company pay in servicing costs for its main
printer hub?
This is what economists call a "razor and blade" model. Sell the razor
as cheaply as you can. But lock in repeat business from loyal customers
who need replacement blades.
Right
now 80% of the people buying the raw materials that 3D printers use, in
the form of cartridges and powders, are using them to create and test
prototypes. But once 3D printers come to be used mainly for the end
stages of production -- a research firm called Wohlers that has
expertise in this area says it will happen before the end of the decade
-- the demand for those "blades" will increase dramatically.
Demand
will also skyrocket as the technology becomes more mainstream, just
like it did for computers and cell phones. That will push prices down,
which in turn will pull demand even higher.
The Atlantic explains the process like this:
"First...
companies create and use a very expensive set of technologies. Then,
garage tinkerers start to use... cheaper, smaller versions of the
original technology. They create a culture that makes the technology
easier to use and they give it more users, which drives down its costs.
Finally, when it is sufficiently cheap and easy to use, mass market
consumers start to buy it."
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Right now, we're at the very beginning of the transition from the "garage" stage to the "mass market" stage.
And that's the moment when you want to be investing.
Sure, you could make some money later.
You
could wait until the market is more "proven." But as we've seen, this
technology is already scientifically sound, and it's already used by
professionals in every imaginable field of human enterprise.
You'd
really be waiting for other investors to catch on. Because when the big
money on Wall Street finally embraces 3D printing, the growth in this
industry is going to be massive.
Did you invest in Apple in 1980?
Did you invest in Microsoft in 1986?
If so, you're probably reading this on your yacht, sipping a $150 glass of champagne.
If not, this could be your second chance.
And I've heard comparisons that are even more exciting.
Three-dimensional
printing "may have as profound an impact on the world as the coming of
the factory did... Just as nobody could have predicted the impact of
the steam engine in 1750 -- or the printing press in 1450, or the
transistor in 1950 -- [this] technology is coming, and it is likely to
disrupt every field it touches."
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It gets better...
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The person who just compared the 3D printer to Gutenberg's revolutionary printing press isn't a wild-eyed blogger living in his parents' basement.
Or an excitable housewife who saw the detectives on CSI using a 3D printer to make a model of a crime scene bullet.
He's a writer for The Economist. (The thinking businessman's favorite sleeping pill.)
His 3D printing article was the COVER STORY.
And The Economist isn't the only traditionally sober publication doing backflips over the incredible potential of this industry.
It seems like everywhere I look these days, I see an article about 3D printing.
The
problem is, none of these articles have compelling, easy to use advice
for the individual investor who wants to put money into this industry
NOW but isn't sure which companies to invest in.
That's why, when it comes to my own money, I rely on David Gardner.
He was one of the first high-profile investment advisors to understand the tremendous potential of 3D printing.
That
was back in 2008 when nobody in the news media was talking about it,
and when most of the companies in the industry weren't even showing a
profit yet.
In
the years since, David has identified three companies in the 3D
printing industry that he calls "top dogs" and "first movers." Companies positioned to dominate over the next 10 years because they have the six key traits that signal explosive growth.
It's
the same method that made David a legend in the investment business.
(CNN's Money.com website calls him one of "the most widely followed
stock pickers in the world.")
He's
delivered mind-bending returns -- in the worst economy since the Great
Depression, he's picked companies that soared 1,493%, 2,366%, and even
2,382%. But he also built his world famous reputation by sticking up for
the little guy -- individual investors like you and me who need sound
advice to navigate a financial system that's rigged to benefit insiders.
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