Comment by bsder
3 days ago
> I don’t think they earned it.
1) The people around me who bought a Bambu P1S or P2S weren't swayed by marketing. Some of them even owned Prusa machines. They bought those Bambu printers because they had products they needed printed, and the Bambu got it done while the Prusa failed prints and made them dork around with things.
2) The A1 minis are cheap and look good to consumers; they also work remarkably reliably. Prusa doesn't have anything even remotely in the same class. That is squarely the fault of Prusa.
3) A lot of people who don't know any better can go to Best Buy and buy a Bambu in stock, off the shelf, with a return policy. Again, the fault lies squarely with Prusa.
4) The Bambu printers had fundamentally better components like linear slides and servo motors, for example. Again, fault to Prusa.
Prusa got caught with their pants down and refused to adjust for far too long. Bambu did genuine engineering while Prusa rested on its laurels.
1) Some of them, yes. But also marketing.
3) is marketing and access to capital that Prusa don't have. 4) Prusa is of similar quality in my experience, or both machines have their problems for different reasons. I would need to run a scientific experiment.
There is no argument in which Bambu succeed solely on technical merit alone. Bambu can outspend Prusa due to access to venture capital funding and state support. That is a structural advantage that cannot be easily overcome.
Plus they have a massive labor cost advantage and a government heavily interested in pushing their players into all markets for dominance.
3) you could buy ender 3s for $99 at a Microcenter long before Bambu Labs was around.