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My brother has a 3D printer, and I've been watching his progress with some interest.

Right now, 3D printers really remind me of the late 70's/early 80's with home printing with dot matrix printers. Noisy, loud and slow and unless you put a lot of work/money into one, the quality was pretty terrible. They weren't something most people wanted to fool with, and only the hobbyists had one in their possession.

I expect in the future we'll see a phase where something "clicks" and just about everyone will have one, and the quality will be decent enough for day-to-day use. Companies will adapt, people will tire of the novelty and you'll end up with the equivalent of POD (Print on Demand) for medium scale projects, but big retailers will still be the ones doing volume printing - at a level of detail that just isn't feasible at home. Meanwhile, people will have their home printers for knick-knacks or small jobs (print a comb, replace a phone case or whatnot.