Posted on 01/09/2017 10:35:40 AM PST by gaggs
An interesting read about the future…
In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide.
Within just a few years, their business model disappeared and they went bankrupt.What happened to Kodak will happen in a lot of industries in the next 10 years and, most people won’t see it coming.
(Excerpt) Read more at commonsenseevaluation.com ...
Kodak could have been at the forefront of Digital cameras as they’d created the first one for NASA. Instead they chose to stick to film. Some companies innovate and some companies die.
My daughter lives in a city that used to produce about 90% of the buggy whips used in the United States.
There are a lot of empty buildings in the downtown area because they NEVER recovered.
I had a Kodak 5mp digital camera many years ago when that size sensor was new.
Great camera.
I am so screwed.
I program automated machines. Unless AI can do that, I’ll still have a job.
Technology will change things, but things don’t always happen as predicted.
For example, I remember hearing years ago how internet banks would put brick and mortar banks out of business. While online banking is a major activity, we saw existing financial institutions adapt to online banking, rather than seeing significant numbers of internet only banks being created.
But there’s no question that ongoing technological change will affect us and established businesses. What seems clear is that businesses will adapt or die out. And that was a major factor in capitalism even before the computer and internet era.
There are a number of companies that have failed to make the digital transformation.
Jeppesen, a company all pilots are familiar with, had two CEOs in a row since 1993 through 2016 that failed to make the digital transformation.
Jeppesen owned 97% of the aviation paper charting market. In fact, they OWN the worldwide navigation database those paper charts are derived.
They spent over $1 billion from 1993 to present and have yet to make a significant contribution to the digital age. The entire Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) market was theirs to define and own, yet, they failed. Mismanagement of hiring the MBA/PMP types with zero aviation or engineering experience, allowing the outright jealous hatred of pilots by their employees, the view that they were too big to fail, etc., all contributed to their demise. Boeing owns them and has been picking apart the bones. Soon there won’t be a Jeppesen left.
No one is manufacturing xylits, and no one can lonicate posiwats.
In the futeure many people will.
The worst mistake in this pretty useful article is on solar power.
We have already reached it’s min cost becuase a source that only works 8-10 hours a day has to be augmented with 24 hr sources. The math doesn’t allow the delivered price to go lower.
It’s called “The Innovators Dilemma” by Prof. Christensen of Haavahd. On on e had, incumbents like Kodak had all the resources, talent, and market position to be the leaders with the new digital technology. But on the other hand, every measurement, incentive, and expectation from the Board and shareholders on down was to maximize profits doing what they had always done.
Sometimes incumbent companies are able to reinvent themselves and launch on a new growth curve. But more often than not - especially in high tech industries - the incumbent companies go down the wrong path, and new innovative companies rise up on that next growth curve.
If not, we’d be typing on Gateway computers, with Shugart hard drives inside and connected to Epson Printers and NEC monitors, running the 64 bit version of OS/2.
And it will ever be so. IBM did the opposite of Kodak and thrived.
Many of Kodak’s early digital cameras were plagued with bad firmware. Not all, but most. Sounds like you dodged that bullet.
The most annoying symptom of poor firmware was the camera’s battery voltage detection logic. Unless the batteries were brand new, the camera would display a low voltage warning and shut off. So you had to either spend a fortune buying new alkaline AA’s all the time, or constantly top off the charge of your NiCads. In either case, fresh batteries lasted about 5 minutes.
Well-known issue at that time.
I can remember when the pitch to buy silver was that it was used in photography and would ALWAYS face an increasing demand.
Never had a problem with the unit.
I used it 360 virtual tours until I got a 20D.
At one time Sears Roebuck was immensely successful — largely doing what Amazon does, mail order - with free returns if not satisfied- — it was the World’s Largest Store with its good customer satisfaction policy ( similar to Costco today). . (Sears owned Chicago radio station WLS with that call sign selected for “world’s largest store”). Now it has a mostly non- discript product lines - just sold off craftsman-— with lots of imported goods and high prices. That dog don’t hunt, sorry Sears.
...running the 64 bit version of OS/2.
In the early days of digital cameras you'd spend $300 - $400 on one and in 4 months it was totally outdated.
Silver is the most electrically conductive material, and there are still a lot of electronic devices in the world.
Yet Lotus Notes exists.
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