[filmscanners] Re: Kodak dropping 35mm and APS cameras in N.A.

["Arthur Entlich" <artistic-1@shaw.ca>]

Kodak, as you have stated, has had a lot of false starts over the years,
particularly in their consumer product business.  These include 8mm
video, video tape, film scanners, "instant" films (which they lost a
major law suit to Polaroid over) stabilizer color paper developing
systems, digital CD image systems and the list goes on and on.  They
sold off their chemical division years ago.  They've been into
photocopiers (using Canon engines). Many of these products they actually
either developed and licensed to others, or sub contracted or branded
products with their names, made by others (like TDK made their
videotapes under their formulations (very good formulas, BTW), or their
gold CD-Rs made by Mitsumi under license.

Kodak, however, is making major in roads in digital and may be doing
some thing right.  They product CCDs for many digital cameras on the
market.  They bought out Applied Science Fiction (owners of digital ICE,
GEM, SHO, etc).  They either make their own or brand out memory,
batteries, and other products used in the digital photography field.

They certainly haven't been smart much of the time in their promoting
and sales in the consumer end of things.  They spend a fortune
developing brand loyalty, and as soon as they develop it, they pull the
plug on the product line.

However, digital is probably their last chance to get it right... I
guess we'll see...

Art

LAURIE SOLOMON wrote:

> Kodak has a long history of all kinds of false starts in both the film and
> digital industries.  Despite their long history of producing and selling
> film cameras in NA, they have introduced such things as 110 and APS cameras
> and films which they promoted as the next best new introduction shince white
> bread, forcing many labs  to spend money getting equipment to process those
> formats only to see the cameras, film, and need for processing diappear.
> Kodak's main revenue sources were the movie industry, the graphic arts and
> scientific industries, and government with general consumer and professional
> photography being a second tier revenue source.  However, Kodak started
> abandoning their first tier revenue sources by not keeping up withthe
> changes in those industries but jumping on the bandwagons after the fact - a
> day late and a dollar short.  Having lost much of that business, they
> scurried around trying to make the general film photography market revenues
> make up for the reduction in revenues from the other markets but faced stiff
> new competition from Fuji and others.  Given this, they then attempted to
> introduce all kinds of new gimmicks to recapture the general film
> photography market but failed as almost every turn.  they also tried dipping
> their toes into the digital market but never showed the committment or
> willingness to stick to anything within the digital field - they flitted
> around like a gadfly at a social event.  Having eliminated many of their
> specialty films from their product list and facing stiff competition in the
> general film photography market at both the professional and consumer levels
> as well as digital, Kodak is seeking ways to stop bleeding although it still
> has not found any direction in terms of the future.
>
>

<much cut>

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