Posted on 02/09/2012 10:22:06 PM PST by SWAMPSNIPER
Shocking news: Kodak, the company that invented the first digital camera back in 1975, announced today that it is pulling out of the camera market entirely. The phasing out of digital cameras, pocket video cameras, and digital picture frames will likely happen by the end of June. Instead, the company will be focusing on licensing out its patents and brand name
(Excerpt) Read more at petapixel.com ...
Well, if you have nothing left to sell...
The market has been there, Kodak just didn’t read it right. They labeled enough junk to get a bad quality rep and then it was too late to recover. They marketed some really pitiful stuff.
Even if Kodak didn’t have all the other problems they have they would be smart to do this since they only sell low and mid range cameras.
That market is dead, thanks to cameras being standard equipment in most phones these days.
There are things they could probably still do.
Not everybody wants to spend a lifetime on Photoshop, for example, going over every single detail in photographs to get things right.
Kodak could probably offer after-photo services that many people would probably pay for.
It will be a long time before the phone cameras replace a serious DSLR, or even a good “bridge” camera, if great photos are your goal.
“That market is dead, thanks to cameras being standard equipment in most phones these days.”
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I had no idea that Kodak even made a camera since my
old box camera of the early 50s.
It is amazing how digital photography has become so common.
We take pics with the cellphone every day, and they have fantastic resolution.
It's been 40 years since I read their story in some 60s magazine.
/johnny
Xerox, IBM, Sears, etc. The company took over the business and it's products.
They couldn't transition from the old style management and products as fast as new blood. It's literally teaching an old dog new tricks.
Xerox gave away what is now Windows and Apple. Gave it away because their old thinking couldn't see the application and thus thought it was a tool they couldn't use. No insight to the future.
You'd think men that grew up before air flight and space flight could see the potential for the computer. But, alas, many like Xerox only saw giant machines for single purposes and couldn't really envision one on your desk or in your hand.
This is what happens to corporations that are managed to maximize “stock value” instead of striving to gain and keep customers through service and innovation.
They cut costs, outsource, sell crappy products and then wonder why nobody buys their crap and the stock value plummets anyway.
Cart. Before. Horse.
Yeah, a lot of chemicals are used in film developing. The cameras were just the cheap hardware, the money was always in developing and printing the pictures off the film.
If you can’t see your business model dying, you aren’t going to continue.
Spent most of my career in luxury hotel accounting. We used to make good money off phone calls through rooms and pay phones and long distance service charges. Business travelers didn’t care how much it was back then. Now with cell phones etc. that revenue stream dried up.
Here’s to the Eastman Kodak company and the thousands of engineers, technicians, etc. who brought joy to our lives. One day our hard drives will all be fried but we’ll still have that old shoebox filled with pictures, and we’ll still kneel down and cry when we look at the handwriting, the date, and that Kodak name on the back.
I do not believe you can keep such people down. Rochester NY has been a hot-bed of industry and innovation in many sectors (some related) as Kodak has lost steam, and there may be hope yet for the company as it reconfigures retirement and benefits packages and jettisons dangerous weight.
“It will be a long time before the phone cameras replace a serious DSLR, or even a good “bridge” camera, if great photos are your goal.”
Which has absolutely nothing to do with my point which is that Kodak doesn’t MAKE a serious DSLR, so they have nothing to offer that isn’t being killed by cell phone cameras.
Like it or not, cell phones are the new “point-n-shoot” cameras. And “point-n-shoot” cameras are what Kodak has made for decades, regardless of format.
(I’m old school, my phone has a camera and I never even THINK of it, even when I see one of those “gee, I wish I had a camera” scenes. )
The camera you have is better than any camera you don’t. I agree that the DSLR’s take wonderful pictures, but for most purposes my iPhone is just as good, and it’s almost never more than three feet away from me.
Excellent points.
A deadly, highly infectious business disease often transmitted by MBA programs.
Frequently caused by over-focus on quarterly results. Giving short term thinking priority kills your business in the long run.
This is what happens to corporations that are managed to maximize “stock value” instead of striving to gain and keep customers through service and innovation.
They cut costs, outsource, sell crappy products and then wonder why nobody buys their crap and the stock value plummets anyway.
Cart. Before. Horse.
Excellent points.
A deadly, highly infectious business disease often transmitted by MBA programs.
Frequently caused by over-focus on quarterly results. Giving short term thinking priority kills your business in the long run.
This CANNOT be over-emphasized. In many ways this way of thinking is destroying America because it infects both business and the public sector. Short-term thinking is nearly always detrimental to long-term results.
In business the short-term goal is quarterly profits in Politics it’s votes. And as we see, Obama and company thinks putting as many formerly working people onto the Government teat means an increase in votes for the short-term. The long-term results are a failing economy and soon the inability to pay those new voters to see on the butts collecting the dole extorted from the remaining workers.
The end results from bad management practices concentrating on the short-term to the detriment of the long-term means both will soon be out of business.
So, is the stock a buy right now? Most bankrupt company stocks bounce back up to around $1.00, don’t they? Or not...?
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