According to the Wall Street Journal, camera manufacturer Kodak is preparing to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, following a long struggle to maintain any sort of viable business.
The announcement has prompted some commentators to claim that Kodak’s near-demise has been brought on by:
– A failure to innovate, or
– A failure to anticipate the shift from analogue to digital cameras, or
– A failure to compete with the rise of cameras in mobile phones.
Actually, none of these claims are true. Where Kodak did fail is in not understanding what people take photographs for, and what they do with photos once they have taken them.
Before looking at what people actually take photos for, and how Kodak got it wrong, let’s look at the two reasons others have given for Kodak’s failure: that the camera in phones has replaced the stand-alone camera, and that Kodak failed to innovate.
