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Comment by davkan | Hacker News Reader

Kodak was definitely mismanaged in many ways but you are correct in your analysis. If they had pivoted hard to digital they could have been what today? Nikon? Fujifilm? These are known brands that are bigger than Kodak is today but they are nothing compared to what Kodak was.

At its peak Kodak was one of the (the?) most well known brands on the entire planet. Anywhere in the world if someone snapped a photo Kodak was more than likely taking a cut, coming and going. They employed as many people in Rochester alone as any digital camera company does today internationally.

Sure it could have been managed better but they were always doomed for a fall. They were a chemical company entering a digital age. Does anybody even care who makes the sensors in iPhones?

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> If they had pivoted hard to digital they could have been what today?

Having the first portable-ish digital camera they could have seen the true value of Fairchild's CCD business, got a stake/bought it/replicated done whatever it took to push the frontier of digital imaging and became the Kodak (old, film-era Kodak) of electronic imaging?

There's no comparable business today because all the things they could have invested in ended up being taken up by different companies, they had the R&D culture, revenue, and distribution. I don't see why they couldn't have been category defining.

They could have been category defining, sure. It would still be a fall though is my point. A fall from being a household name across the entire world to a company making components and niche hobbyist and professional equipment.

Kodak, like Xerox had it all under one roof their management at the time turned their back on the future…

IBM was the same way, ironically, the fourth Yankee clipper company had to be dragged into using two types of glasses sitting on the shelf that were patented/created in the early 1960s, both of which later became known as gorilla glass. Steve Jobs had to call them (Corning) multiple times to get them to finally let him use it on the iPhone. Imagine if Steve had contracted out to some other glass company in the far east?

The future was the death of Kodak as it existed regardless. They were a chemical manufacturing company that did some software. Their core business was doomed regardless. Could they have pivoted? Yes. But even if you correct every missed shot they’d still be a shell of their former selves unless you’re creating wild counterfactuals like a kodaphone.

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