Kodak to stop making cameras.

MarkRMarkR Registered Users Posts: 2,099 Major grins
edited February 9, 2012 in The Big Picture
http://rochester.ynn.com/content/top_stories/573147/kodak-to-stop-selling-cameras--job-losses-expected/

Rest of the world asks, "Kodak still made cameras?"

As a Rochesterian, as someone who's worked at Kodak, and whose family worked at Kodak, this is just another drop in a long, slow, sad decline.

The worst part is that about 6-7 years ago, some product manager at Kodak gave a public interview in which he stated that Kodak needed to get out of the low-end low-profit cameras and start moving into more upstream cameras. A few years later and their SLRs and bridge (P-series) cameras were gone. :cry

What is surprising is that I had thought that their handheld video devices (the Play/Playsport) had been something of a minor hit. :dunno

Comments

  • NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited February 9, 2012
    MarkR wrote: »
    ...Rest of the world asks, "Kodak still made cameras?"
    Exactly.

    I agree, it's been sad to see the former giant aging, losing all its strength and image and finally biting the dust. I wish it was not the case, but I guess their upper management could not keep up with the age of smartphones and tablets...
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
  • MarkRMarkR Registered Users Posts: 2,099 Major grins
    edited February 9, 2012
    Nikolai wrote: »
    Exactly.

    I agree, it's been sad to see the former giant aging, losing all its strength and image and finally biting the dust. I wish it was not the case, but I guess their upper management could not keep up with the age of smartphones and tablets...

    It's definitely a management issue. For decades Kodak was an incredibly profitable, and very paternal organization. Getting a factory job at Kodak was for many a career goal. I remember when they started shuttering the corporate bowling alleys(!) back in the eighties. But they never seemed to want to do anything other than what was traditionally very profitable: film and paper.

    Here's an interesting article from Reuters about two different Eastman companies: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/24/us-eastman-kodak-idUSTRE7BN06B20111224
Sign In or Register to comment.