Of course anybody can pinpoint the why of it all - when was the last time you bought film? Other than a few eastside hipsters and photography students, I don't know anybody who's still seriously doing the analog thing.
Admittedly, I did buy a Holga camera to try and do the whole manual film thing. After 4 or 5 rolls it has captured several very nice, artistic pictures and it's true that a digital camera just can't replicate film. But it also caught many horrible ones. On top of that, I missed a whole trip to Big Sur because I loaded the film wrong and ruined a roll because I opened the back before fully winding it up. User error is not the fault of the film, but when digital cameras are so goddamn easy - from being able to check your pictures immediately to being able to edit, color correct, and share with the greatest of ease - it feels a bit ridiculous for the average guy to spend unnecessary time on a slight hobby when there are many other things I'd rather be doing. If you're in to photography then I absolutely suggest you buy some sort of manual camera if only because those "mistakes" often do make something more amazing than the perfection guaranteed with digital cameras. But if you just want to shoot memorable moments to post on Facebook and email your friends, it's more of a hassle than it's worth.
Anyway yes, Kodak was ruined by digital cameras. Now that most films are shot digitally (easier to edit and you can email prints overseas instead of spending thousands of dollars on shipping costs) Kodak literally has no real demand for the product on which it was built, film. But you know what? It's their own damn fault.
In 1975, Kodak developed and built the first digital camera, a gadget able to store the pictures in digital files the user could then save on a cassette.And then, instead of ramping up their production department to make digital cameras, memory chips, sharing capabilities - hell, all the picture-sharing sites like Flickr they just, like, did nothing with the exception of their few last-ditch efforts to go online and whatnot way too late.
This would be like Blockbuster coming up with the smart idea of a mail order video rental company but then neglecting it in favor of its brick and mortar businesses. Now it's trying to adopt Netflix' business model and with Netflix upping its prices, it just re-opened the door. But that's more a mistake on Netflix' part than anything else.
As a luddite, I often wait until as long as possible before adopting new technology. I am of the opinion that the more we come to rely on new technology and the integration thereof, the greater a chance we give to some mad genius to destroy or at the least take advantage of us and, even more, the further we get from our humanity. Still, I view business and innovation in a different light. When I worked for marketing companies I spent hours looking for the newest technology, studying up on SEO and social networking and user-generated content marketing. I advised the old marketing VP's to take the multi-millions they were spending on magazine ads and on an outfit-builder on their website and instead invest on a bigger online social media/UGC presence. Along those same lines, Kodak should have put more time and R&D into this emerging digital relationship between people and their photographs. Perhaps this can be chalked up to the inflexibility of market giants. But seeing as they were the first ones to TAKE DIGITAL PICTURES 37 years ago, there really is no excuse other than their own sheer stupidity.
So this week's Seemingly Unimportant Decision of the Week is a two-shot:
1. Don't spend your company's vast resources and expertise to develop technology that runs counter to your bread and butter and
2. If you do come across the next great innovation, have enough sense to start shifting your resources and efforts toward developing that instead of putting your head in the ground and just hoping it'll go away. Because it won't. If Kodak had immediately started doing something, they could've turned their massive ship, something that takes a lot of time and effort but can be done. If you think you can hid your discovery you're wrong - somebody else will discover it at some point and most likely they'll be like a little speed boat, able to turn quickly and power through the chop.
All the people from Kodak who will no doubt be whining about losing their retirement benefits? While a lot of you may have been factory workers and whatnot, again screwed by the workings of the man you so faithfully served, there were probably a good portion of you who convinced your higher-ups that the digital thing would never catch on because you didn't understand it or you just didn't feel like dealing with it. And now, well, I'm sorry but you're paying the price.
- Ryan
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