Microsoft announced in June that Windows 8.1 will include native support for 3D printers, in a first step towards making 3D printing as common place as desktop printing. Today, one of the leading consumer 3D printer companies, MakerBot, announced that its Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer is being sold in many more Microsoft retail stores.
While the $2,199 printer has been available for sale at Microsoft"s Bellevue, Palo Alto and San Francisco locations since earlier this summer, today"s announcement says that the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer, along with the MakerBot PLA Filament, is now available in 15 more Microsoft Stores. MakerBot says that those locations are the only retail stores in the world, besides MakerBot"s own store in New York City, where anyone can buy one of their printers and take it home the same day.
The full list of the 18 Microsoft Stores that are selling the MakerBot printers are:
- Scottsdale, AZ – Fashion Square
- Costa Mesa, CA – South Coast Plaza
- Mission Viejo, CA – The Shops at Mission Viejo
- Palo Alto, CA – Stanford Shopping Center
- San Diego, CA – Fashion Valley
- San Francisco, CA – Westfield San Francisco Centre
- Lone Tree, CO – Park Meadows Mall
- Danbury, CT – Danbury Fair Mall
- Atlanta, GA – Lenox Square
- Oak Brook, IL – Oakbrook Center
- Schaumburg, IL – Woodfield Mall
- Bloomington, MN – Mall of America
- Salem, NH – The Mall at Rockingham Park
- Bridgewater, NJ – Bridgewater Commons
- White Plains, NY – The Westchester
- Houston, TX – Houston Galleria
- McLean, VA – Tysons Corner Center
- Bellevue, WA – Bellevue Square
All of these stores will also have the "MakerBot Experience" where anyone who comes into the store will get a hands-on demo of the 3D printer at work.
Source: MakerBot | Image via MakerBot