Posted by Paul DeCesare on August 21, 2015 at 1:13 PM
NY Times posted an article showing the prototype of the world's first digital camera in the 1970s. It was constructed by a 24-year-old engineer named Steven Sasson, and I'm sure most have heard the story where the Eastman Kodak VPs said "nice pet project but we aren't going to compete with our film product". I guess if you look at this you can understand why there was no vision... for one thing, the digital data is stored on a cassette tape! Love it. And look at the phone in your pocket, let alone DSLR, and see what this young man spawned that changed the photographic world forever. Actually, changed capture and delivery of all media on this planet really, cause-and-effect for digital media thinking skyrocketed ever since:
Paul, although I recall some of the history it was still a good refresher to read. In the end Kodak made more then a mistake about the digital camera products, heck, the article even states they made billions without any production of them to speak of at all. Basically by just selling the technology rights they'd developed to others who did use the ideas.
No, the Kodak empire was like a lot of somewhat monopolized companies back then who felt they'd last off of previous products forever. Being overly stagnate in thinking about their business plan in the modern world too. Needless to say, they lasted this long off their products, but lack of newer business thoughts leaves them much less the industry leader they once were. Too bad as it was a golden company for all those many years. The loss of Kodachrome was a bigger hit then they thought it was, at least in my mind.
Thankfully, for old film burners like me some of the stuff is still being made to date. In fact, as Fuji, Kodak, Ilford, hold the line with their sales, Ferrania is trying to make a come back with only being held up right now by some final plant rearrangement issues this year. I do think the proliferation of products is long time behind us now. If they just stick with their solid sellers some of them will keep making money. I was surprised to find out that even Project 55, the old Polaroid film stuff these days, is actually talking about releasing a camera as some of the old units are getting much harder to find.......go figure.
It's crazy world out there still for "build it and they will come" crowds, eh?.
Posted by David Bostedo on August 22, 2015 at 1:19 PM
Neat article... Certainly there were some people in Kodak pushing for digital as they saw what was coming. The company as a whole probably knew it too, but were too short-sighted to hurt their exsiting business for something so far down the road. I've seen this example used as a study or test case for other companies (and MBA students) to learn from; If something is going to take away your business anyway, it should be you yourself doing the taking.
Here's a related article about when Kodak first dipped into digital camera sales. At various times they worked with Canon and Nikon to use their bodies and add the digital components. They really were way ahead if they had seen what they had.
Discussion
3 repliesNY Times posted an article showing the prototype of the world's first digital camera in the 1970s. It was constructed by a 24-year-old engineer named Steven Sasson, and I'm sure most have heard the story where the Eastman Kodak VPs said "nice pet project but we aren't going to compete with our film product". I guess if you look at this you can understand why there was no vision... for one thing, the digital data is stored on a cassette tape! Love it. And look at the phone in your pocket, let alone DSLR, and see what this young man spawned that changed the photographic world forever. Actually, changed capture and delivery of all media on this planet really, cause-and-effect for digital media thinking skyrocketed ever since:
http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/lens/2015/08/12/kodaks-first-digital-moment/
Paul, although I recall some of the history it was still a good refresher to read. In the end Kodak made more then a mistake about the digital camera products, heck, the article even states they made billions without any production of them to speak of at all. Basically by just selling the technology rights they'd developed to others who did use the ideas.
No, the Kodak empire was like a lot of somewhat monopolized companies back then who felt they'd last off of previous products forever. Being overly stagnate in thinking about their business plan in the modern world too. Needless to say, they lasted this long off their products, but lack of newer business thoughts leaves them much less the industry leader they once were. Too bad as it was a golden company for all those many years. The loss of Kodachrome was a bigger hit then they thought it was, at least in my mind.
Thankfully, for old film burners like me some of the stuff is still being made to date. In fact, as Fuji, Kodak, Ilford, hold the line with their sales, Ferrania is trying to make a come back with only being held up right now by some final plant rearrangement issues this year. I do think the proliferation of products is long time behind us now. If they just stick with their solid sellers some of them will keep making money. I was surprised to find out that even Project 55, the old Polaroid film stuff these days, is actually talking about releasing a camera as some of the old units are getting much harder to find.......go figure.
It's crazy world out there still for "build it and they will come" crowds, eh?.
Neat article... Certainly there were some people in Kodak pushing for digital as they saw what was coming. The company as a whole probably knew it too, but were too short-sighted to hurt their exsiting business for something so far down the road. I've seen this example used as a study or test case for other companies (and MBA students) to learn from; If something is going to take away your business anyway, it should be you yourself doing the taking.
Here's a related article about when Kodak first dipped into digital camera sales. At various times they worked with Canon and Nikon to use their bodies and add the digital components. They really were way ahead if they had seen what they had.
http://www.nikonweb.com/dcs100/
I just have one question...Where is the tripod mount?
Kodak really screwed the pooch on this one. Too bad because they had a great thing going.
--P