Is Kodak the 'Biggest Loser'

[arthurking83]

I've said this on prior occasions and still maintain that Kodak are useless morons(well the execs are).

They used to be the only company in photography.. yeah sure there was the mighty Nikon who made a few million on their high quality gear, and the likes of Leica or other upper echelon individual that also eeked out a 'subsistence' living when compared to the billions that Kodak used to make.
Fuji made an impact as some point and I dare say they will outlive the monolith that used to be Kodak.

Not only have they basically gone broke, but according to this story are going even broker.

With the business that Kodak used to have, the foothold on the market they used to dominate with, had they see the future of photography as others had seen it they would now have a stranglehold on the digital market.
It's not like they never had a chance ... the morons that run the company simply had no idea and fat pay checks to go with that because for too long all they did was to do what was done in the past and wait for people to buy their wares.
Didn't happen for too long, no body is buying their wares now(be it hardware, software or services).
Who remembers any of their Kodak digital cameras?
I remember that I got a cheapie for the kids and the kid's cousins broke it.
It got replaced with a Samsung(in hot pink) and the Kodak passed through our little microcosm of history without barely a blip on the radar.
Daughter loves Pink Sammy and I've even asked her if she want an updated, better camera for Christmas ... "Nup! I like my pink camera"

I think it's too late for Kodak to be a player now.

I watched Kodak go from ... not just a corporate giant .. but a city sized Gigantosauraus of a colony(out here in Coburg not far from where I live) .. to a nondescript little street frontage with barely any presence at all.
Their business contracted so much that approximately 10 or so years back they had to scale back their local ops to centralise it from .. (somewhere in Sydney I think).

We used to deliver tons of their film stocks all over the place and made pretty good money from it due to the volume of work, not the value of each job!!
But they were obviously not profitable even way back then, so surely they must have seen the writing on the wall not just now, as in recently, but possibly 10 years ago or so.

I think they should be sold off split up, and really have no right to exist any longer because they obviously have no idea on how to cater to an evolving market.
I think once they're gone, maybe a new player could come in and do something right .. like create a system that people may get enthusiastic about.

I have to say I'm very much anaesthetised to the iPhone craze, and really can't see the fuss about it, but the kind of thing that Kodak needed to do way back when they had the resources was 'an iPhone system'. Something that people would warm too and come back too for more.. more useless products that filled a desire to gadgetise themselves.

Who knows.. maybe they'll re invent themselves as iDak or something, but I doubt it.
Apparently the assets are worth billions(to someone), and the film will continue for some time to come, so they won't just suddenly dissappear. But like the T-model and the Beetle and the Polaroid and the iPhone all good things seem to have an end(sorry couldn't resist the jibe about the iPhone .. I just can't see the fuss).

iDak is dead even before the idea was conceptualised by the company that should have thought of it! .. so, to Kodak I say good riddance(hopefully sooner rather than later).

It's still kind of sad if they do go into bankruptcy in the near future, sad that such a large company with command of an industry could go down like this.

Have to say too tho, I've only ever once in my life used Fuji film.(Velvia)
I've always used Kodak, and been happy with it for what it did.

Firstly Kodak was just so much more prevalent everywhere you went, and even where there were other apparently great alternatives, I still went with some roll of Kodak.
I think more so because of the work we used to do for them in that as they gave us work, I may have felt a need to support the guys that gave us some support.
Dunno really, but even as recently as a year or so ago, I still got myself a roll of this Ektar to give it a whirl.
I ummed and ahhed over a roll of Velvia too, but thought nah!... Gimme the Ektar.

Kodak's long fade to black news item on Los Angeles Times.