3D printing is still in its infancy as manufacturers and suppliers refine both designs and materials in order to make the process ubiquitous in both the retail and commercial market place, but that hasn't prevented companies from establishing global market presence. One example is Vancouver-based Tinkerine Studios (TSX: V.TDD, Stock Forum), maker of the Ditto™ Pro prosumer 3D printer.
According to a news release published today, the company announced that it had inked a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with SBCK, a subisidiary of SoftBank, a worldwide entity and one of Asia's largest technology related service providers.
The MOU gives SBCK exclusive rights to distribute and sell the company's full suite of 3D printing products, which includes the Ditto™ Pro, the highly scalable Tinkerine U education technology platform and its printer filament series into the Asia Pacific Region.
As a team, the company and SBCK will continue to develop market opportunities in education, retail and the enterprise sector, which should be relatively easy as the Seoul, Korea based SBCK already acts as a regional distributor of IT products, mobile solutions and cloud services with customers and partners including government agencies, public and higher education institutions along with major software companies such as Microsoft, Adobe and Autodesk.
Company Director of Business Development, Rob Smith, commented on the prospective milestone, “We are excited that SBCK has selected Tinkerine as its partner for the Korean and Asian Pacific market. As a company, we are committed to aligning ourselves with best in class sales, distribution, and strategic technology partners. SBCK's corporate, consumer, and online channel partners are the perfect fit for the Tinkerine brand and our vision to become a global leader in the consumer 3D printing and education markets.”
Chinchul Yi, SBCK Chief Marketing Officer, added, “SBCK was looking for 3D printing solutions with strong education curriculum and Tinkerine is the right partner to initiate SBCK's 3D printing business in terms of aligning with Korea's 3D printing initiatives.”
Then he concluded, “We see Tinkerine as a catalyst to expedite SBCK's 3D printing business not only in Korea, but all APAC regions in the near future, through SBCK's global networks within the SoftBank group companies.”
A match made in heaven in a market destined to grow by 500% in five years, reaching a remarkable $16.2 billion by 2018. Only those companies that actively position themselves as the sector balloons by an estimated 45.7% year-over-year growth rate, will benefit from the expected boom.
Sunshine and rainbows aside however, the sector is still maturing and is incredibly volatile from a retail investment point-of-view. Therefore it would be prudent to view it as more of a spectator sport until some the dust settles and the sector gains a little definition before you decide to go 'all-in' on any one prospect.
That said, Tinkerine has a solid business model and has been making some smart moves thus is well worth keeping an eye on as the sector progresses.
Tinkerine was in the news recently when the company announced launching nationwide managed 3D printer services with partner, Printerworks, at the end of July.
Shares were up 8.82% to $0.37 per share.
Currently there are 41.8m outstanding shares with a market cap of $14.6 million.