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3D Printing: Still in its infancy

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When 3D Printing began in 1986 we were told that the future of the device would see every home equipped with one so that we could print out the broken widget to the malfunctioning electrical appliance, or the missing part to complete your 1964 Aston Martin DB5 kit car project, which has long since become unavailable.
However, as with most inventions, commercial concerns take a project and runs with it. This is what Futurists often overlook – Yes, we can have a MagLev Train running under the Atlantic Ocean connecting New York to London. No, it won’t happen because no-one will be able to afford to pay for its construction.
These commercial concerns inevitably stall, or even halt the march of development and innovation, which is why the world does not progress as fast as it could.
3D Printing is still sufficiently infant to have its future defined by commercial possibilities, which include the following possibilities.

3D Printing: Rapid Prototyping

IF you are a James Dyson or a Trevor Bayliss and have an idea. The Next Big Thing, in fact, but you need to get a prototype made...
This is a real and ready future for 3D Printing. If you can load Computer Aided Design (CAD) to a PC, you won’t need tooling skills. Your design can even be transformed and developed past the prototype stage. The days of making moulds or constructing parts by hand will soon pass. 
A simple Google search will bring up many different companies that are already providing this service. As this is now considered a commercially viable proposition for a business model, which in turn would suggest improving 3D Printing technologies and applications will not just take over the Prototyping Industry, but drag it along a few steps further.
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Dentist Teeth Moulds
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Samples & Prototypes
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Replacement Parts

3D Printing: Rapid Manufacturing

A major benefit of 3D Printing technology as it is, will be the direct relationship between Rapid Prototyping to Manufacturing. 
As a variety of materials are now usable with the technology, companies can now take their designs and hit their marketplaces quickly and with the right quality.
Laser Sintering allows for metal fabrication using 3D CAD model. Put succinctly, the technology fuses a variety of metal powders in the process. Complex designs, high speed, accuracy and quality, and finished articles without tooling, can only possibly be considered a major breakthrough. There's still a long way to go, but they are on their way.
As the process can use most alloys, and it builds the design layer by layer, internal features that would not be able to be added using traditional methods without extreme tooling cost implications, can be added.  
Below is Inventor's full scale 3D Printed Motorcycle

3D Printing: Emerging Technologies

Among others, the Staples stationery chain have been researching the use of paper in 3D printing. It is not a retrograde step, as the phrase would imply, but instead, the process uses a model printed in paper that is then covered in ceramic. The paper is then removed and metal is poured into the space previously occupied by the paper. 
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Adding that process to the aforementioned Laser Sintering process, and it is easy to see the little grey cells are working over time, and the scientists and developers of the technology are hurtling along at a rapid rate to find the technology that will emerge as the front runner in the process.
It is believed that within ten years home ownership will occur as the quality of the technology and materials improves and prices fall. Mainly, it will be because the printing software and patterns will open up a world of possibilities. 

3D Printing: Mass Production v Home Use

At this stage, mass production is not possible because of the comparably slow speeds of the available technology. of course, this is unlikely to prove an obstacle in the long run - how long that long run is at this stage is unknown.
Home Use obviously has numerous to the hobbyist. Already it is easy for figurines to be made, and a company like Airfix and Revell must surely be researching the possibilities of not just the long term viability of their business model, but whether the CAD patterns will be more valuable to them than their model kits!
And there is more - the 3Doodler as shown in the video on the left is surely one of many spin off technologies that may capture the public's imagination. You can view more HERE
At this stage, the technology has not moved on significantly from its invention to allow for definite predictions, but it undoubtedly has a future. For example, light manufacturing will reduce costs significantly, shops that provide modelling will be able to make custom made figurines available in their stores. A New Zealand guitar manufacturer has started selling £D printed guitars for $3,000 each.
Gun Control lobbyists also have a new battle on their hands, as someone has already designed a 3D semi automatic!
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Summer 2013

3D Printing: How To Get Started

Anyone can do it, and as of the summer of 2013, these machines, software and marketplaces were the most up to date.

Machine

The Cube 3D Home Printer is £1,500. You can learn more by clicking on the image above.
The UP! Plus Personal Portable 3D Printer is £1,900, and again you can learn more by licking on the image above.

Software

You can turn ordinary photographs into 3D objects. Honest!
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There are easy to use 3D software packages.
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Marketplace

So, you have your 3D Printer, you have the software, you have designed your amazing artwork and have given all your samples to friends and family. Maybe other people might like to buy your wares. You can sell them at the following links.
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Summer 2023

Fast forward a decade and already realised technology may well provide us with the technology that all of this is really a prelude to:
Biotechnology companies and scientists are studying tissue enginnering and associated research methodologies to take us doen a path that could elad to 3D bioprinting.
We could be talking about organs and body parts. 
If anything, it could be easier to master the layering of cells than 3D model printing.
Dr Frankenstein has already taken out the worldwide patents.