Well, I half-way agree with you. There may be limits as to just how upgradeable a thing is until it’s time to just start over with a new thing. For example: for decades now I’ve always built my own PC, starting with the motherboard and building up from there. Why? Well, it’s the hope that it’s upgradeable. And it is, to a degree, but only for a while. Eventually faster RAM comes out that it can no longer support. A new version of PCEI comes out that outstrips it. Better CPU’s are released with a different pin-out that’s no longer compatible. So, I maybe get one upgrade out of it. And then that’s as far as I can take it, all because ultimately it can’t jump out of its own skin.
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I’m prepared to have my mind changed about this. It may be that it’s because when I started in 3D printing, everything seemed to need upgrading, seemingly all the time. But the advantage of the non-upgradable approach is that it’s a known quantity. When the time comes and you want to upgrade, you sell the old machine to somebody who wants that known quantity at a mutually agreed price, and you move on from there. Nobody wants to buy a one-of-a-kind Frankenstein, like an an Ender 3 that’s been upgraded to run with linear motors. No, the people who want an ender 3 want that, for cheap, and the people who want a Peopoly because it has linear motors and a box frame want that and not something with a tortured past that started life as an Ender 3. Just cash on the barrel. In and out. It’s frictionless. So, why fight it? Sell the known-quantity as soon as you can before it loses more value, and then roll those funds into the new better thing. I think maybe I’ve talked myself into it.
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Fair enough, but the point was that the absence of upgrades for a current line isn’t a negative if they are replacing it with the next best model.
OP had said that it was better to spend money on a new printer with the latest tech, than invest in costly upgrades to match it. Then later in the post he negatively mentions that BL wasn’t working on upgrades, only the next model so it felt like a bit of contradiction.
LOL. looks like it.
I’m not claiming to be a negative thread, but then again, like in the Apple case, or for 3D printing, Prusa, it doesn’t necessarily mean that launching a new product it turns out to be a good/reliable one. On the other hand, improving existing products may lead to technological innovation (and usually it is so). As for 3D printers, technological advancements combined wigh various (more or less successful) improvements did lead to the development of the X1C. However, it took quite a long time and lots of patching and upgrading (trial and error) to get to the stage of having the X1 series. Before that, no 3d printer manufacturer bothered that much to put some effort and resources into R&D and come up with something novel. BL has the merit of mixing together what was best from all the existing 3D printers and came out with a novel approach to 3D printing that not only took all the other competitors by storm, but also has forced them to step up their game in order to compete with BL’s products and not lose customers and market share (actually, that’s definitely one of the main reasons for which Stratasys is coming after BL). Improvements lead, eventually, to innovation, and innovation leads to increased competition, which ultimately benefits us, the end consumers.
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I think you said it perfectly. In the day of the Ender 3 we absolutely had to have upgrades, often just to make it work properly. BL has introduced a new paradigm where the system just prints and upgrades aren’t necessary for the life span of the tech. In a rapidly changing market with competitors hot on your heals, R&D resources will likely be spent on the next game changer rather than upgrades of existing models.
I suspect we might see BL licensing after-market upgrades for older lines, but there aren’t any older lines yet.
It actually makes sense as the older a line gets, the greater the number of those printers are out there. That makes a more profitable market for a manufacturer to invest in developing, manufacturing and distributing upgrades. Upgrades for a new line doesn’t make sense in terms of sales to a more limited number of potential buyers particularly when a printer is newer and less likely to under-perform which drives the desire for upgrades.
On the other hand… 
It’s not quite as clean as described it. Say I want a printer like the X1C, but with nozzles like an A1. Actually, I do. I wish I had that. I wish I had that today. Unfortunately, I can’t buy that. Nobody sells it. So, on this quantum release paradigm, I guess it’s just TS and wait until somebody comes out with that? Maybe the next Bambu printer has it, but it’s on a multi-head printer that costs as much as a Prusa XL. Well, that would be a bummer. Then, just to get the upgraded nozzles I’d have to shell out big bucks. Ironically, having just said that, at the same time I’m kinda hoping that the next Bambu printer is exactly that, because then my X1C will still have decent resale value, so when flashforge comes out with an X1C that has the better nozzles I can roll into that without taking a bath. But if I could do the nozzle upgrade, I’d probably stay in the Bambu camp just out of inertia, and Bambu could keep selling me filament and whatever other stuff.
Also, there are other consequences: say Flashforge came out with that printer I want (essentially an X1C with A1 nozzles), but before Bambu had even announced its new printer. Well, now it’s a panic sale situation. I should immediately sell my X1C to someone with latent demand so I can maximize resale price and jump into Flashforge, probably at a lower price, on the fear that a yet-to-be-released X2C might undercut the pricing on my X1C. But I can’t know whether an X2C printer is even a possibility. Maybe the panic sale was all for nothing. And then I’m gone, suseptible to Flashforge’s influence and brainwashing, rather than Bambu’s. People tend to stick with what they know, so with no reason to change, inertia takes over and maybe I’m gone for a long while.
Anyway, just some fanciful thoughts. But I could see it turning out that way.
Actually, you may have a point here. While the BL’s CEO made, a while back, a very vague statement about a possible launch of a new BL printer sometime in Q4 of this year, considering the 2 Stratasys lawsuits BL has to deal with (and the involved financial and reputational costs) and the risk assessment posed by a very possible loss, it might be that the launch of the BL next printer (if it really exists) might be postponed or even put on hold, for quite some time. In that case, your investment in the X1 will continue to maintain its high market value… except for the situation where a competitor might come up with something way better than the X1 (personally I doubt that it will happen anytime soon,
but kne should consider it, just in case). Anyway, for now , and possibly next year, i don’t see any competitors coming out with a significantly better printer at an equal or lower price than BL’s X1.
I think you can count the number of nozzle changes I’ve made on one hand. Nice to have but not decisive for the match.
What you can also count on one hand on the M5: the screws that you have to loosen to change a complete print head 
And the entire print head is available as a spare part too 
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I totally get it! I agree with you 100% and would love to see those upgrades for my own setup as would most everyone. I am just skeptical that it would be the best use of time and effort for the company. Your point about the panic sale situation is exactly why I believe BL would want to expedite the next printer and not take time and effort from that goal to work on upgrades for a line that is still the market leader. By the time any competitor matches the X1C, the next gen from BL will be out and the bar gets set higher again. This is the competitive edge that consumers have been missing for years in the 3D printing arena. Until BL no one really tried, they repackaged and resold the same things instead of developing and building better products. Now those companies find themselves in a situation where they have to innovate or risk fading away. So far, we’ve seen releases of new printers from competitors that mimic the features of X1C, but none have really duplicated it yet. Hopefully they are working on ways to surpass BL in their next iterations, which will keep BL innovating, and prevent anyone from sitting back on their butts and riding the ‘good enough’ wave in the future. Then when Flashforge releases something new you will absolutely have a dilemma trying to decide what to buy.
Thanks for your perspective, it got me thinking about things a bit differently.
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It’s a risk. However, like the guy who mentioned riding a dead horse, one could even argue that Bambu doesn’t need to come out with a better printer until they do. Bambu could even have the next one ready to go, but it’s holding back until that day comes. What better way to undermine the efforts of its competitors, if their only talent is copying and cost reduction?
Also, the other thing which reduces my worry about the perfect copy being produced: look at how many years Prusa’s competitors stumbled over themselves and still couldn’t make a decent copy of the MK3. And the irony is, it was all open source! I mean, how stupid do you have to be to remain perpetually incapable of making a perfect copy of a very high margin open source printer? And Bambu’s printers are not open source, so the hurdle is even higher.
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I don’t think the law suit will affect anything for several years, if at all. These types of cases spend many years in the court system and it will continue to be business as usual despite the proceedings.
The only fear would be that the courts awards an injunction to stop manufacturing based on the presumption that BL has harmed Stratasys and the cessation of manufacturing would stop the damage.
Thats not very likely, but even if they did, the court would say that the worse harm to Stratasys would be that BL owes them royalties on the sales based on their patents. In which case they would continue to do business because it would just be a possible dollar figure that they’d be negotiating in court and putting BL out of business wouldn’t be in the interest of anyone. And since Stratasys has a history of frivolous law suits like this, that’s unlikely I think. Just my thoughts based on my years of watching Law and Order! lol.
LOL… that proves my point, that currently, the existing competitors are way behind BL, though some are trying (sort off) to catch up, and that there’s little chance (@ this time, though we might get pleasantly surprised) of them launching a 3D printer that would dethrone BL’s X1 series supremacy, and thus, unless BL comes out with a better printer than the X1, the residua value of the X1 printers will remain relatively high, @ for the time being.
Just wanted to chime in as I am anxiously awaiting the reveal of the next printer. I had an A1 that I only just returned for a full refund after not using it since March (after the recall). Life got really busy and they said not to use it, so there it sat.
Anyway, my plan was to use the voucher to upgrade to a CoreXY printer. I was set on making the swap to a P1S since it’s almost a wash in price difference but I’ve wanted an X1C since they came out and I can afford one now. Then I heard there was a new machine reveal coming in Q3 so now I’m waiting to make a decision. I’ve read that the X1C is much more wasteful than the A1 when doing multimaterial prints, and that it’s much more difficult to swap out the nozzles of the CoreXY machines. I loved how easy that was on the A1.
Ideally, I’d like to see the new printer have multiple toolheads to improve multicolor printing times and reduce waste even more than the A1. Larger build plate isn’t a must for me but it wouldn’t be a bad thing. Hopefully we find out soon because at this point I’m checking evey day for news.
As for upgrades to the X1C, I wouldn’t be surprised if they worked on some after the release of the next big model. The percentage of X1C owners that will upgrade to an entirely new machine is much smaller than the percentage that would buy upgrade parts to their existing machine, especially those that own multiple X1Cs. For example, a quick-change nozzle upgrade would likely be cheap and easy for them to make and definitely a good source of additional income for them. Not owning one, I don’t really know what upgrades it could use two years later but I honestly expect them to continue supporting it even after their next big model comes out (assuming the next model really is their new flagship machine.)
Be aware, that the vouchers have limited use-by-date from the date of issue.
If you wait too long, it will expire and you will have lost the money.
Only you can determine if the wait is worth the potential for a new and shiny announcement.
This will not be a cheap printer, multiple tool heads increase costs in all directions, not just the parts, but, the complexity of controlling them and the additional circuitry to drive the additional heads increases everything.
The Prusa XL for example, is an expensive machine that has been beset with teething troubles from the launch.
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Beside owning an X1C combo, I also own an XL and to the date I can’t complain of having any technical issues with it. It is definitely slower than the X1C, but it has a larger build volume and when using two print heads (couldn’t afford at the time the price charged for the full 5 print heads set) for multi-filament/color printing , there isn’t any need for prime towers or filament purge. So, in this respect, it works flawlessly for me.
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@drakko When did you acquire yours? The guy at Teaching Tech was bitter as hell about his, but apparently he got an early version.
Had it pre-ordered since March last year, and have gotten it towards mid- or end October (I’d have to check my archives for the delivery date). Since then it has run about 11-1200 hours without any issues. The only thing i had to to for it was to purchase a couple of 0.4 and 0.3 nozzles.
Later edit
After watching his video, I do acknowledge that there’s some level of stringing showing up in some of my prints (not all thou) and that there’s also some occasional filament leaking now and then when the toolheads change, and there’s a small percentage of failed prints, but overall my experience with the XL, as I currently have it (a bit of tweaking and g-code manipulation was involved along the way), was positive. I haven’t experienced what he describes in the video, although it seems we’ve both pre-ordered and received our XLs at the (more or less) same time. Could his unsatisfactory experience be due to longer shipping and manipulation issues? He does live down-under, and there’s quite a bit of manipulation involved from Prusa to his place. Could it be due to some poor manufacturing or quality check on some of his components? Was he the unlucky recipient of a problem printer? I don’t really know. Could be. In his support, he claims to have found many more XL users facing similar or identical problems. Was I the lucky one? Perhaps. All I know is that I haven’t been confronted with the problems he has faced, and honestly, I’m happy I haven’t, cause I would have definitely returned the XL and requested Prusa for a complete printer replacement, or (most likely, given its price) a full refund.
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You could be right. He said he pre-ordered some time in November the year prior, while I pre-ordered on 01 March 2023. He said he has received his in the early October, mine came (according to my archives) on October 31st, 2023. So, arguably, one could presume that, given the length involved with order processing and shipping, that he could have received an earlier version…I don’t know, but it’s doubtful.
Concerning the X1C upgrades, I felt it wasn’t intended to.
This was one of my concerns when I acquired the printer, and I got the sense from interviews and posts that it wasn’t something that BL was looking for.
There were, however, some updates, such as the A1 noise cancelling.
I was even more confident when the X1E was released, as despite being similar, replicating the novel X1E features is a challenge. It seems that the X1C boards weren’t designed to include future updates.
Things may change, however. It would be great. I prefer the launch of multiple upgrades to a new flagship model unless the new one would be at some value of an X1C and entail multiple breakthrough features.
On the other hand, with the mystery behind the closed source code being revealed and considering a large number of users, if BL opts not to update the X1C, it will open the door to 8third parties.
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That wouldn’t pose a serious problem, in my view. BL could start the improvements by coming up with the release of new main boards supporting such improvements, and definitely there will be plenty of takers among the X1C users. I definitely know I would.