I just read a really interesting post by Paul Brody, IBM Global Leader for Electronics Industry, where he discusses how 3D-prininting is more than a manufacturing technology, it is a software-enabled ecosystem. 

We are already seeing 3D-printing in production in medical devices like prosthetic and dental implants. This is helping improve living standards, and can perhaps even prolong life.

I wonder how performance improvements and new software innovations for such technologies will impact the cost of production and product and application development technologies.