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MakerBot's 3-D Printers Lead the Hardware Revolution Smaller, less expensive 3-D printers are unlocking the ability for more people to be part of the maker movement.

By Jennifer Wang

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

The maker movement took center stage at this year's South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas. The coveted opening keynote was delivered by Bre Pettis, CEO of 3-D-printer manufacturer MakerBot Industries, who used the occasion to unveil the Digitizer, a desktop device capable of scanning objects up to 8 inches in height using lasers and a webcam, streamlining the printing infrastructure from end to end. "You can fill the world with garden gnomes if you want," Pettis joked.

The onstage debut was an homage to Maker-Bot's origins: In early 2009 Pettis was part of a collective of hackers who wanted to get their hands on a 3-D printer, which at the time were the size of mainframe computers and cost about $100,000. "We couldn't afford one, so we made it," he says. They got a rough prototype working before SXSW that year, so Pettis hopped on a plane, headed to Austin bars and began printing shot glasses with the device. He and his co-founders sold some 20 printers in just a few days.

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