U of S | Mailing List Archive | alt-photo-process-l | Re: Kodak digital printer, et al...

Re: Kodak digital printer, et al...



Hi Judy,

I did read that yesterday. This is the link to it, but you may have to sign in to access it: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/02/technology/02kodak.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
I was amazed by the electrical engineer who invented the first digital camera (according to him) in the early 1970's, and management had no interest because there was no need for film. Understandable since they made their money from film, but for a company that, at one time, must have been incredibly forward-thinking-- what happened between then and now?



On May 3, 2008, at 3:41 PM, Judy Seigel wrote:


There was an extremely interesting article about Kodak in the business section of yesterday's (Friday's) NY Times, which I'm surprised hasn't been cited here, or even on the History list which usually follows that stuff.

To summarize (tho maybe some web maven will find a URL): Kodak was patenting digital techniques and instruments as early as the 1980s, but the "business" honchos wouldn't bring them to market (or only a trickle) to defend what they saw as their *real* business of film and film chemicals.

Now that Kodak has nearly vanished down the rabbit hole, however, those digital products are being, at least some of them, brought to market, in honor of which one stock rating source has raised Kodak from "sell" to "hold" (wow !).

The article listed a number of gizmos and amenities, some of which even amateurs such as myself could understand, even drool for. The one that interested me the most, however, was a digital printer where you pay for the PRINTER and the INK is cheap !!!

However, in what may be typical Kodak-think -- the article quoted a business or sales manager explaining that "consumers won't buy a product like that" -- or words to that effect.

In any event, if you can find the article, it's interesting, even gives hope.

J.