I was hired in april of 2011 for a startup company that was launching a website. A few months later I agreed to take a pay cut. A few months later i was working for free during my time off a part time job. Now it's December 2011 and I'm working a full time job and everyone has agree'd that old startup is gone.
I think you're missing the beauty of having a a 3d printer at home and needing an enclosure to do an electronics project and just printing one out, or deciding to print out an ipad stand, fork, screwdriver, guitar, etc.
If 3d printers became widespread, we would have databases full of plans made by people and every 3d print wouldn't be a custom one off