Kodak is an American analog photography company founded in 1892 by George Eastman and Henry A. Strong. By the 2010s as the photography market had been flipped upside down by the rise of smartphones and digital photography, Kodak didn’t manage to adapt to this new market, thus losing its market leadership.
| Aspect | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Background | Eastman Kodak Company, commonly referred to as Kodak, was once a renowned American multinational corporation known for its pioneering role in photography and imaging technology. Founded by George Eastman in 1888, Kodak became synonymous with photography for over a century and introduced many innovations, including the first handheld camera and the development of color photography. |
| Dominance in Film | For much of the 20th century, Kodak dominated the photographic film market. The company’s “Kodak Moment” advertising campaign contributed to the popularization of photography as a way to capture special memories. It held a near-monopoly in the film industry and enjoyed immense profitability. |
| Digital Photography | Despite its success in traditional film photography, Kodak was slow to embrace digital photography technology. This delay proved to be a pivotal mistake as digital cameras started to gain popularity in the late 20th century. Kodak’s initial reluctance to transition to digital technology eroded its market share and profitability. It faced strong competition from companies like Canon and Nikon, which adapted to the digital era more swiftly. |
| Bankruptcy and Restructuring | The decline of Kodak’s film business, coupled with its inability to establish a substantial presence in digital photography, led to a financial crisis. In January 2012, Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. During the bankruptcy process, the company underwent significant restructuring. It divested many of its non-core businesses and shifted its focus toward commercial printing, packaging, and functional printing. Kodak emerged from bankruptcy in September 2013 as a much smaller and different company than its former self. |
| Sale of Patents | To address its financial woes, Kodak also sold off a substantial portion of its intellectual property, including patents related to digital imaging, to various technology companies. This sale generated revenue but further reduced Kodak’s future potential in the imaging industry. |
| Legacy | Kodak’s decline is often cited as a cautionary tale of a once-dominant company’s failure to adapt to technological change. It serves as an example of how even industry leaders can be disrupted if they don’t innovate. Despite its struggles, Kodak’s brand and iconic yellow-and-red logo still hold recognition value, and the company continues to exist as a much smaller entity focused on specific business areas. |
| Impact on Photography | The decline of Kodak had a profound impact on the world of photography. It marked the near-extinction of traditional film photography, with digital photography becoming the dominant form. The shift to digital also transformed the way photographs are taken, stored, and shared. While Kodak’s role as a market leader faded, digital photography opened up new opportunities for individuals and companies in the imaging industry. |
Background
Kodak is an American analog photography company founded in 1892 by George Eastman and Henry A. Strong.
Some argue that the failure of Kodak to capitalize on digital photography was one the greatest corporate mistakes of the 20th century.
Indeed, it was Kodak engineer Steve Sasson who invented the digital camera in 1975.
When Sasson presented his prototype to Kodak executives, he noted that
“it was filmless photography, so management’s reaction was, ‘that’s cute – but don’t tell anyone about it’”.
In subsequent years, many interpreted the above quote as being concrete evident of Kodak’s disinterest in new technology.
Others saw it as Kodak recognizing the potential of digital photography and wanting to keep the technology a secret.
The actual truth lies somewhere in the middle. Below is a look at what happened to Kodak as the company entered the digital age.
Half-hearted interest
To say Kodak had no interest in digital cameras would be false. In truth, Kodak had someinterest in the technology.
They received a patent for Sasson’s invention in 1978 and invested billions of dollars in a range of digital cameras first released in 1991.
The company continued to invest in digital technology for 20 years before filing for bankruptcy in 2012.
We suggest the company did not have enough of an interest in digital cameras to capitalize on their immense popularity.
Kodak began by selling digital sensors to Sony without committing to making a digital camera itself.
The company was also reluctant to produce digital cameras during the 1990s because most digital cameras sales were concentrated in Japan where rival Fuji dominated.
During that same decade, Kodak remained largely fearful of entering into full-scale production of digital cameras.
In 1993 alone, it spent $5 billion on digital imaging research only to channel the funds into 23 separate photo scanner projects.
In 2001 and with a new CEO at the helm, Kodak finally committed to digital photography by releasing its EasyShare line of digital cameras.
By that stage, however, the market was saturated with high-quality offerings from Canon, Sony, and Nikon.
Changing retail landscape
Kodak was also a victim of a changing retail landscape in North America.
During the 70s and 80s, every town had a film store stocking Kodak products which allowed the company to corner as much as 90% of the market.
This changed when big-box retailers such as Walmart, Costco, and Sears started to emerge and began acquiring smaller film stores.
Kodak was then forced to sell in larger retail stores with more competition. What’s more, the business model of these stores involved forcing manufacturers into providing high-quality products at lower prices.
At the same time, Kodak was enduring lower profit margins, Fuji used its profits from the Japanese market to aggressively expand within North America.
It also opened a film production plant in South Carolina and cut prices to help it steal market share from Kodak.
Kodak then endured a price war with Fuji that it would eventually lose – mainly because it was too conservative to lower its prices for fear of further eroding profits.
Consumer sentiment toward foreign companies also changed in North America during this period, allowing Fuji to strengthen its position relative to Kodak.
Missed opportunities
As soon as digital cameras became mainstream, consumers started using smartphones for their photography needs.
Digital camera sales plummeted as people went from printing pictures to storing them on devices and sharing them on social media platforms.
This put Kodak – already lagging in the digital camera market – at a further disadvantage.
In 2001 the company acquired the photo-sharing website Ofoto but missed a huge opportunity to turn the acquisition into a Facebook-style photo-sharing service.
Despite the obvious shift to online sharing and social media, Kodak used Ofoto to try and convince people to print more digital images.
In so doing, the company failed to recognize online photo sharing as a new industry in itself and not simply an extension of the printing industry.
Kodak sold Ofoto to Shutterfly for $25 million as part of its bankruptcy proceedings around the same time Facebook acquired Instagram for $1 billion.
Key takeaways:
- Kodak is an American photography product and service company founded in 1892 by George Eastman and Henry A. Strong. After dominating the photographic film industry for decades, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2012.
- Kodak was not ignorant of digital camera technology. But it did fail at various stages to commit to digital products entirely despite overwhelming evidence that the technology would prove profitable.
- Kodak was also the victim of the changing retail landscape and consumer sentiment toward foreign products in the United States. Blind in its devotion to printing, it also missed an opportunity to create a Facebook-style photo-sharing website three years before Facebook itself was conceived.
Quick Timeline
- Kodak is an American photography company founded in 1892.
- Kodak engineer Steve Sasson invented the digital camera in 1975, but Kodak did not fully capitalize on the technology.
- Kodak had some interest in digital cameras and invested in digital technology, but it was hesitant to fully commit to digital photography.
- The changing retail landscape and competition from Fuji impacted Kodak’s market share and profit margins.
- Kodak missed opportunities to adapt to the digital era, including not fully embracing online photo sharing and social media.
- The rise of smartphones and digital photography led to a decline in digital camera sales and further disadvantaged Kodak.
- In 2012, Kodak filed for bankruptcy, representing one of the greatest corporate mistakes of the 20th century.
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