THE century-old US camera pioneer Eastman Kodak, which brought photography to the masses, filed for bankruptcy early today after years of failing to keep pace with the digital age.
Read more: here (http://www.news.com.au/business/kodak-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy/story-e6frfm1i-1226248714124)

I trust we all saw this coming. I'm sure there will be plenty of eulogies as well.

Andrew

Strange how these things run, they are one of the big pioneers in digital imaging.

I guess it could be like Xerox and computing, all the big ideas like icons and the mouse used by Apple and Microsoft were developed there, but they still do mostly printers.

It seems that despite Kodak being the pioneers of many imaging technology, they had feet of clay when it came to product development.

Steve

According to people who worked there Kodak was never behind in product development or innovations. It's just that their management thought they could control the market at their own pace.

Sad day, indeed.

Can't remember the guy's name, he was quite famous in the early 90s but what he taught back then was so true. Any business should be able to sense a business paradigm shift, those who are not able to recognize it will fail.

so true.....

Perhaps now is a good time to buy that backup battery for my Kodak Zi8.

If free enterprise is allowed to run it's course, Kodak could choose to emerge from bankruptcy.

I don't think anyone anticipated 15-20 years ago when the world was exclusively using film photography, how quickly digital cameras would supplant a technology that had been around for 150 years. When Kodak came out with digital cameras they were actually pretty popular and at one time they had a pretty good share of the market. But now, the digital camera market is convulsing due to the proliferation of smart phones. Maybe if Kodak had gotten into smartphones or pads they would be riding high.

On parallel note, I've worked for a few large corporations. There seems to be an impression with the public at large that most corporations are well organized and firing on all cylinders. Things couldn't be further from the truth. Most Large companies struggle with internal organization due to their size, become overly political, too much group-think, good ideas get watered down or not pushed to market because of an aversion to risk. I've seen it more than once where a good idea gets canned or diverted, watered down, maybe because some loudmouth dufus in a meeting who had a strong personality but was low on market or product knowledge steered a good idea into the drain and nobody in the meeting wanted to expend the energy to override them. I think the power of Apple was that Steve Jobs' personality was so strong that he was able to peel through the layers of the onion and ram through products with a vision as HE wanted them and ultimately he had good vision (not perfect, but usually got it right). It's evident that Kodak didn't have that kind of leadership.

The economist as an article explaining how Fiji has been more successful in handling the drop of in the highly profitable film sales:

Technological change: The last Kodak moment? | The Economist (http://www.economist.com/node/21542796)

The economist as an article explaining how Fiji has been more successful in handling the drop of in the highly profitable film sales:

Technological change: The last Kodak moment? | The Economist (http://www.economist.com/node/21542796)


Good reading. Thanks for posting.

Kodak to shutter camera business | Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/10/uk-kodak-idUSLNE81901G20120210)

Kodak just killed it's digital camera and pocket video production and scaled back further. I remember being in my first darkroom at age 15 and every guide, chemical and paper was kodak. The kodak professional photo guide was a must to own.

Kodak to shutter camera business | Reuters (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/10/uk-kodak-idUSLNE81901G20120210)

Kodak just killed it's digital camera and pocket video production and scaled back further. I remember being in my first darkroom at age 15 and every guide, chemical and paper was kodak. The kodak professional photo guide was a must to own.

With that, Kodak will no longer distribute its own branded digital cameras. Instead, the Kodak brand will be licensed to third parties who will do their own distribution. This is done in a similar fashion to the Kodak-branded blank optical media that's sold at Fry's.

Although to be honest, Kodak has not manufactured a digital camera on its own since the early 2000s. Around 2005, Kodak sold its camera manufacturing operations to Flextronics of Singapore. And the Kodak-branded media that's sold at Fry's are distributed by "KPS Media" (a company unrelated to Kodak), but the media itself is made primarily by Moser Baer of India (with some of its production also made by UmeDisk of Hong Kong).

Worse to come ..

At the Oscars, It's 'The Kodak Theater' No More | The Wrap Awards (http://www.thewrap.com/awards/column-post/oscars-its-kodak-theater-no-more-35630)

......