Having the catalog of materials and designs available even before all units are shipped would be a great thing. Most of the energy in the forum has been about getting the actual hardware shipped and ensuring that the user interface is ready to go. I haven’t noticed too much information about priorities, schedules and capability regarding the catalog. There are a few threads. Not much in the Q&A from 11/20. This post:
is from October 22. I have been doing a lot of research on materials, designing, and laser use to help me temper my anticipation and expectations around getting a Glowforge. I’d really like to have some materials and designs that I can just use right away. But, I see nothing that promises a working catalog concurrent with the shipping. The promise of cloud computing that is built into the price of the introductory offer seems to be for operating the forge and not design. There is uncertainty about this. I have no doubt that the catalog will rock. @dan’s comments about sourcing bespoke plywood tells me that they are definitely working on it. When will it go live, that’s not clear. I have thought about the catalog being a revenue stream, and wonder how much that was pitched to initial investors. But it doesn’t seem to me to be a core focus of the business, unlike the inkjet printer business model.