Kodak and the Invention of Popular Photography
In 1888, the Eastman Kodak Company rolled out a new camera and a new slogan. “You press the button, we do the rest.” To say this moment revolutionized photography would be an understatement. But this story isn’t just about Kodak. It’s about what happens when a powerful technology, originally only understood by a select few, can suddenly fit in your hand.
And then, fast-forwarding to the 90s and 00s, Kodak gradually, then suddenly, missed a similar shift that further democratized photography: the move to digital.
Discussion 1 comment
I worked at Kodak from late 1991 until early 1996 and was both a Development Engineer with Gov't Systems and a Product Manager with Digital & Applied Imaging. While the culture was certainly fairly dysfunctional, I'm not actually sure what the company could have done to navigate this massive change. They produced and sold one of the top three most profitable products of all time - film, paper & chemistry. The margins on each were enormous. They also made equipment which carried lower margins. They invented digital imaging. They also saw the writing on the wall. It's very hard to "eat your children". There was no clear path to the same level of profitability. It would be like somebody inventing a product that made the iPhone obsolete. I used to want to bash their decisions, but it hindsight it was a very very difficult transition to navigate.
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