I should emphasize that I don't think that Kodak can reinvent themselves in the photography business. It's my belief that they have to break new ground and get into other technologies if they wish to survive. That's what I meant by reinventing themselves; sorry if I was unclear.
As Max states above, most everything in photography has been reinvented enough times that nobody cares how many megapixels the sensors are anymore. What else is there? Pictures with scent? Pictures with an attached donut? Nobody needs a camera to do anything else than what's already on them.
If you think about what something like an iPhone has done for photography. Every dumbass that owns one, and that knows nothing about photography, can download applications to their device and just play with the pictures until they have something they like. It's intuitive, easy to do, and you can make an 8x10 print that looks pretty good if you really wanted to. 99% of photographers are probably no more discerning than that.
So what has really changed? Pictures are stored on Flickr, on memory sticks, on hard drives, or Facebook. Fewer prints are being made, and people are NOT stuffing shoeboxes full of them to store in the attic. Making it easy for folks mean they can take decent pictures, that they are happy with, with a device that is also their phone, and they pay nothing for every picture they take other than the power to charge their devices. It's bloody brilliant, if you're selling iPhones. But if you rely on selling point and shoot digital cameras, look out... How do you compete with that? You don't.
So you look elsewhere, check out micro and macro trends in the economy, figure out what future problems are going to be, and start producing solutions to those problems. In my opinion that's what Kodak needs to do.
You may be onto something here, T..if they can figure out a camera that makes a good espresso and spit out a picture with a donut attached..
Hey, there is an obvious tendency here, since it is APUG, to think with the heart, with nostalgia, when it comes to film and process. But, objectively, it's not how it is and will be. Kodak, in some strange way, will have to find a digital niche or stay in a film niche. Maybe they can still marry both and make everyone happy. The question is, once again, what are they going to produce that is innovative, unique, to make them relevant and successful? Forget film. That's right, nobody prints anymore and the few that do use inkjet (I'm talking at the mass level here, not us on APUG necessarily). Digital is cheap and it's easy. If you have money to blow, you buy a Leica M9 or even a Fuji X100 and be happy for the rest of your life. The quality is staggering and potential limitless.
Take me, as a consumer, for example: I own an M9, I used it, I can take incredible pictures with it, and it's just gathering dust. Why? Forget about the argument of "film is better..blah blah.." It may be, it may be not. IT'S THE PROCESS. This is something that most will agree with here. We do it because WE LOVE IT. We love shooting film, we love our film camera, we love developing it, we love making mistakes and silly tests (ok maybe not that) and we still love to print in a darkroom. It's the same for those 30 people in the US who still do wet plate
They do it because they love it, and not because it's better than digital. Yet, there isn't enough of us to keep big companies in business. So, where will Kodak fit in the future? I say nowhere, sorry (again, except a niche film market like Ilford). Steve Jobs may be dead but I would be willing to bet that Apple will come out with something staggering in the imaging department and marry everything that has to do with pictures in a seamless way, just like they did with music. Game over! That will cover 99% of the market, aside from those who are still attached to carrying a big camera and a bunch of lenses for a variety of reasons. That will be the overwhelming minority. Let's be honest, I know many here look around and see pictures taken with an iPhone and processed with Hypstamatic or other apps with some jealousy. If I were to post analog versions of some of those lovely pictures, everyone here would be oohhh...aaaahh...wow..but since, they are digital, they are crap? Well, they are not and that's the reality. If I can make an image look like the best Polaroid I can dream of with the iPhone in my pocket, why the heck would I want to spend $25 on 10 Impossible Project sheets? That's how most people think and those are the people who keep big, successful, innovative companies like Apple in business and thriving. It's a new world out there and unless Kodak pulls out a miracle, they are done in what is their current incarnation.
