Kodak Reeling!
- 19 January 2012 09:20148200Staggering to hear the news this morning that Kodak have filed for Bankruptcy Protection in New York. This shows just how quickly your fortunes can change in business. Just a few short years ago Kodak was a name on everyone's lips, a true global brand, it pleasantly invaded all our lives through family snaps and cameras and so on. Who can remember the Box Brownie? Every family had one.
They dominated the global photomarket, they had something like 90% of global film sales and everyone was familiar with the famous yellow boxes. Kodacolour, Kodachrome, Ektachrome...we have all used these names. As a brand it was right up there with Coca Cola.
Then almost overnight...wallop!. The digital revolution. People stopped using film very fast and Kodak were caught napping. They had no immediate answer. They failed to join the digital revolution early enough and it moved ahead without them. In time they did join in, as we see with the camera above, but the market had galloped away from them, and the rest as we see today is history.
No doubt they will try to make a comeback as a leaner fitter company hence this protection order.email: dover7@msn.com - 19 January 2012 10:39148210An icon of the photographic age, that should have kept up with the technologies.
As with everything, if you don't buy their goods, they can't survive and people will only buy their goods if they are offering what the people want.
Roger - 19 January 2012 10:45148211oddly enough a fairly recent report on pocket digital cameras gave high marks for a couple of theirs.
seems that they have not struck a chord with the top of the range ones. - 19 January 2012 11:38148218PaulB is right on the button, Kodak did leave it a bit late joining the digital revolution, but on the digital printer front they seem to have made up for lost ground, as in most cases have transfered a lot of the manufacturing side to India.
I use my pocket Kodak digital camera all the time, it does what it says on the tin
I remember my Dad using his 'Box Brownie' looking down into the viewfinder, saying left a bit, right a bit, back a bit ....
- 19 January 2012 18:28148261listened to an export on news 24 and he insisted that kodak were ahead of the game on digital cameras but mada a bad business decision.
they wanted to manufacture and sell very high quality cameras to the professionals but keep the rest of using the ones with film in. - 19 January 2012 18:29148263Kodak invented the first proper digital camera so they should have known better !!Been nice knowing you :)
- 19 January 2012 18:51148281Someone's crystal ball wasn't working very well it would seem. Shame to see a world icon take a nose-dive like that.Phil West
If at first you don't succeed, use a BIGGER hammer!! - 19 January 2012 19:28148295i would have thought it very obvious to make it available to all.
every time a new invention comes on the market it is bought by the wealthy few, the rest of us lick our lips in anticipation.
in no time the combination of demand and mass production bring the price down to buyable level.
i can only think that kodak were so comfortable having everything their own way they underestimated what other companies could do. - 19 January 2012 22:16148339I would imagine that we will see Kodak come back doing only what they are good at now. Which is photo printers. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if they struck some kind of deal with one of the big players, probably Samsung as they already make most of their printers and simply rebadge them.
- 20 January 2012 01:40148353They certainly have a good name with their upper range models of photo printers. However, I have seen the recent Kodak printer advertising campaign on the TV which highlight the low cost of their inks (apart from the "bells & whistles" features such as "All-in-One" and Wi-Fi, which doesn't concern me in the slightest). I would urge anyone thinking of buying a cheaper model Kodak printer (under whatever name they will continue to be marketed) to consider two things.
Firstly, Kodak printers contain an internal print head rather than one on the ink cartridge. Looking at the website reviews it appears a number of people are experiencing problems in this area and are having to replace the heads, which may be economically pointless if it's a cheap printer.
Secondly, the cheap ink feature may not tell the whole story. The printer uses a dedicated black ink cartridge for text printing, but often a combined-colour cartridge for photo and colour document printing, which means that you'll have to replace the whole thing as soon as any one colour runs out.
I should stress again this is mainly applies to the lower end of their existing range.
Back in the summer I found my very elderly HP photo printer was tired of life so I looked around for a replacement (I do notice that HP seem to be quite shameless in their practice of inflating the price of ink cartidges the older the model is !
). Looking at the specifications of the Kodak consumer range I couldn't find anything that fitted my bill, and their commercial range was way too big or too costly for me. I settled instead on an Epson A3 size photo printer. It's about the size of a coffin and uses eight ink cartidges! Under the most critical examination the results are superb.
But that's not all. I do a lot of text printing and thought it would be a shame to use a quality photo printer for that so I bought a very basic model Kodak - I did!
(without any whizz-bang features). I use it mainly for B&W text and it works a treat.
Back to the Kodak Corp. Having spent a large part of a wasted life in smelly darkrooms with various Kodak products I find myself in quite a reflective mood over the whole sad story. As I haven't fully worked it out yet I shan't bore you with it at the moment.
- 20 January 2012 08:37148361The top guys at Kodak were probably taking extremely high salaries and bonuses and failing the company; some bad decisions have obviously been made, hope they are not rewarded for failure.
Roger - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
20 January 2012 08:58148364probably will roger. - 20 January 2012 10:52148394I've had the British Journal of Photography Newsletter in this morning and will quote the following from it...you can see the mess...
"
"Kodak is taking a significant step toward enabling our enterprise to complete its transformation," says Antonio M. Perez, Kodak's chairman and chief executive officer, when announcing the firm's intention to file for bankruptcy protection.
The decision comes after six years of losses that have resulted in Kodak amassing $6.8 billion in debt, while its assets are only valued at $5.1 billion. Now, Kodak is banking on a $950 million debtor-in-possession credit facility with an 18-month maturity from Citigroup to survive over the next year and a half, providing "sufficient liquidity to operate its business during chapter 11, and to continue the flow of goods and services to its customers."
"
Yes...that reads BILLIONS in debt. It has more debt than some of the countries in the European Union!! ...well almost...It filed for bankruptcy protection before some debtor issued bankruptcy proceedings against them.email: dover7@msn.com - 20 January 2012 18:16148489That's all very well, but they still have to make the products that the public want - and at a price they are prepared to pay.
Roger - Terry Nunn
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 4,316
20 January 2012 23:03148544Just watched Paul Simon on BBC4 - magic! His penultimate was Kodachrome, once banned by the Beeb!
TerryQuis custodiet ipsos custodes?
