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Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

cnn.com

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Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#61

Post by regnull »

dtagames wrote: post #8
moomin wrote: post #4

It’s sad to see. As I understand it, digital photography forced camera companies to decide if they were principally about film or about photos and imaging. The competition in the image space was brutal, which phones winning the mass market by a huge margin. Those that quietly moved into recondite but valuable areas of technical specialisation did much better, but they’re not camera companies anymore.

Kodak itself was the first to demonstrate a digital camera in 1975.[0] There is no one else to blame for any decisions. [0] https://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/kodak-engineer-ha...

I always thought that this story is probably more nuanced, and indeed it is:

https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kodak-digital-camera-inven...

In particular:

"While this may have been a motivating factor to some at Kodak, such concerns did not stop Kodak — or even Sasson — from further developing digital cameras and making several technical developments that led to Kodak's first publicly available digital camera in 1991, the Digital Camera System."

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#62

Post by alephnerd »

glimshe wrote: post #52
throw0101a wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Interesting to compare the tech companies of last century with those of this era. The 'tech companies' (equivalent) of the past tended to deal with physical goods, and so needed physical means of scaling to become as large as they did. More recent tech companies are often software goods and services, where physical means of scaling may not be as important (though see perhaps with Moore and Dennard). Though those wh…

Many tech companies still deal with physical goods and employ enough people to fill a city - but no longer in the US and Europe, generally. Whether we want them back is up to us.

Ever been to Folsom, Chandler, Olathe, Huntsville, Quad Cities, Peoria, Irvine, San Diego, North Chicago, East Liberty, Taylor, etc?

We have seen a decrease in companies that work on physical engineering goods, but plenty still remain.

The difference is, engineering physical goods has been increasingly automated and skilled for decades now (robotic manufacturing, additive manufacturing, CAD tooling, etc has been a thing for decades now), so you will need at least an associates but often a bachelors degrees in a STEM field to climb the ladder in Automtotive, Aerospace, Electronics, Pharma, Chemicals, and Defense manufacturing.

Even the "MBAs" they hire in LDPs are required to have technical undergrad degrees before joining an MBA.

I don't like the fact that stores like Fry's don't exist anymore, but electronics is a much more niche hobby now than it was 30/40/50 years ago and is much less hobbyist friendly - building something with an 8088 might be fun, but not as much anymore when you can purchase a STM32 for a fraction of what they 8088 was 30 years ago. Coding has becoming a very prevalent hobby now, and access to hobbyist boards like Arduinos and Raspberry Pis has become much more democratized.

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#63

Post by zoeysmithe »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #56

The MBAs that outsourced camera production to APEC are long retired.

The inventors of capitalism are long dead. Lets not pretend its "mba's" or "corpos" that are the problem here. This is how capitalism works. If people dont like it then they should consider alternatives.

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#64

Post by ljsprague »

throw0101a wrote: post #18
specproc wrote: post #15

Interesting to compare the tech companies of last century with those of this era. Kodak employed a whole town, and many more people besides. We're now waiting on a one-person unicorn. The number of people benefiting from an enterprise has shrunk considerably, with the benefits accruing more tightly within an already wealthy class.

> Interesting to compare the tech companies of last century with those of this era. The 'tech companies' (equivalent) of the past tended to deal with physical goods, and so needed physical means of scaling to become as large as they did. More recent tech companies are often software goods and services, where physical means of scaling may not be as important (though see perhaps with Moore and Dennard). Though those wh…

Less people on earth back in the day; and more people in farming back in the day.

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#65

Post by i_am_proteus »

myrmidon wrote: post #50
kjellsbells wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Kodak's failure to capitalize on their invention of the digital camera is so often cited as the cause of their downfall that it has taken on the air of truth. Whether it really was the cause of their demise or not, I'm not so sure. Suppose theyd come out with a line of digital cameras. Would that have saved them? That seems unlikely. Looking around at similar companies, Nikon and Zeiss became specialist lens makers,…

One important point I think is that Kodak, at its core, was a huge company specialized in photography related chemistry . Not easy to turn a company around when the knowledge/qualifications/experience of most of your employees becomes almost worthless. Thats also what made it easier for others (like Corning) to pivot (presumably).

Fujifilm recognized that they were a chemistry company and partially pivoted to cosmetics.

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#67

Post by decimalenough »

mensetmanusman wrote: post #56

The MBAs that outsourced camera production to APEC are long retired.

What they actually fumbled was the transition to digital. Keeping analog film/camera assembly in the US would only have led to Kodak running out of money even sooner.

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#69

Post by tomr75 »

specproc wrote: post #15

Interesting to compare the tech companies of last century with those of this era. Kodak employed a whole town, and many more people besides. We're now waiting on a one-person unicorn. The number of people benefiting from an enterprise has shrunk considerably, with the benefits accruing more tightly within an already wealthy class.

flip-side is one person can add a billion dollars of value

Re: Kodak says it might have to cease operations [updated]

#70

Post by SamuelAdams »

> Kodak aims to conjure up cash by ceasing payments for its retirement pension plan

I have always wondered, what happens to a pension plan when the company files for bankruptcy? What happens if the lump sum payment is not enough for retirees? Are they financially screwed until they die?

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