Posted on 02/09/2008 9:37:08 AM PST by Cagey
BOSTON (AP) — Polaroid Corp. is dropping the technology it pioneered long before digital photography rendered instant film obsolete to all but a few nostalgia buffs.
Polaroid is closing factories in Massachusetts, Mexico and the Netherlands and cutting 450 jobs as the brand synonymous with instant images focuses on ventures such as a portable printer for images from cell phones and Polaroid-branded digital cameras, televisions and DVD players.
This year's closures will leave Polaroid with 150 employees at its Concord headquarters and a site in the nearby Boston suburb of Waltham, down from peak global employment of nearly 21,000 in 1978.
The company stopped making instant cameras over the past two years.
"We're trying to reinvent Polaroid so it lives on for the next 30 to 40 years," Tom Beaudoin, Polaroid's president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said in a phone interview Friday, after the company's plans were reported in The Boston Globe.
Polaroid failed to embrace the digital technology that has transformed photography, instead sticking to its belief that many photographers who didn't want to wait to get pictures developed would hold onto their old Polaroid cameras.
Global sales of traditional camera film have been dropping about 25 percent to 30 percent per year, "and I've got to believe instant film has been falling as fast if not faster," said Ed Lee, a digital photography analyst at the research firm InfoTrends Inc.
"At some point in time, it had to reach the point where it was going to be uneconomical to keep producing instant film," Lee said.
Privately held Polaroid doesn't disclose financial details about its instant film business.
Polaroid instant film will be available in stores through next year, the company said — after which, Lee said, Japan's Fujifilm will be the only major maker of instant film.
Polaroid got its start making polarized sunglasses in the 1930s, and introduced its first instant camera in 1948. Film packs contained the chemicals for developing images inside the camera, and photos emerged from the camera in less than a minute.
Polaroid's overall revenue from instant cameras, film and other products peaked in 1991 at nearly $3 billion. The company went into bankruptcy in 2001 and was bought four years later for $426 million by Minnetonka, Minn.-based consumer products company Petters Group Worldwide.
Polaroid's newly announced job cuts include 150 positions to be eliminated over the next couple months at Massachusetts operations in Norwood and Waltham, which make large-format films for technical and industrial photography. Later this year, Polaroid will close plants employing 300 workers in the Mexican state of Queretaro and in Enschede, Netherlands.
Meanwhile, Polaroid is seeking a partner to acquire licensing rights for its instant film, in hopes that another firm will continue making the film to supply Polaroid enthusiasts.
As it seeks to gain a foothold in digital photography this year, Polaroid plans to sell an 8-ounce photo printer slightly bigger than a deck of cards that requires no ink and prints business card-sized pictures. It uses thermal printing technology from Zink Imaging Inc., founded by private investors who bought technologies from Polaroid as it was coming out of bankruptcy.
Polaroid also has its brand name on foreign-made TVs, DVD players, digital photo frames, cameras and MP3 music players. Those products generated nearly $1 billion in revenue last year for Polaroid's parent firm, Beaudoin said.
What is film?
The Buggy-whip industry is hurting too. . BUSH’S FAULT!!!
Some day, I’ll be listening to an “oldies” station with my kids, and they’ll ask, “Daddy, what does ‘shake it like a polaroid picture’ mean?”
It's that stuff you find on most womens bodies.
Ducking for cover!
The stuff that is all over your teeth, gums and tongue when you get up in the morning.
Technology takes another giant step forward, leaving those of us who rode to town on the back of a horse in the dust once again.
Fred Flintstone would have been amazed.
You can only live off the do-it-yourself pornography market for so long before another technology comes along and captures your market.
LOL!
The fact that the film was $20 for 10 shots tends to make it irrelevant in an era of $5 photo processing and digital cameras that cost nothing per shot.
My old Nikon film camera is collecting dust. I don’t even remember the last time I used it or touched it. It seems like a big lump now.
Not to mention my dad’s old Nikon that he brought back from his service in Korea. Beautiful lens, but the viewfinder goes wonky sometimes. I keep it as a memento of my dad who was a very good photographer and career Army (Airborne! All the way!)
I just cleaned out my closet and threw a perfectly good VCR in the trash along with a bunch of tapes.
Gave a way a very expensive Minolta film camera a few months ago. Got a Rebel XTi digital camera that takes the best pics imaginable.
Things are changing fast and for the better. I can't be bothered hanging on to old technologies.
There’s a new Rebel camera from Canon, now. The Rebel XTi has been ‘olded’, lol!
IIRC, it’s the Canon EOS Rebel XSi.
However, I believe the most sophesticated Canon is the Mark 1 D, at approx. 22 megapixels, and costs $8000.
There are many instances where the results from my old film-based SLR are far superior to the digital SLR I use.
My father had one of the first poloroid cameras. I can still remember the chemical smell!
Then you need a better digital SLR.
This is,indeed,very sad news for my family,at least.My Dad worked for Polaroid from the early 40's until the early 80's.He worked under Dr Land and was very loyal to him and the company.Dr Land even came to my Mom's funeral.Polaroid started to fail while my Dad was still alive and I wish that that wasn't the case.It broke his heart to see what happened to the company in his final years.
As for the reason for Polaroid's failure...I'm no MBA but it seems to me that when Polaroid was in its hayday they,essentially,had no direct competition...except for that short period when Kodak was infringing Polaroid's patents.When digital photography came around,Polaroid would have had to compete against HP,Sony,Panasonic,etc,etc,etc.And although,in its hayday it was a very financially sound company I can't see how it could have been well-financed enough to compete with such giants.
But then someone with more knowledge of the industry..or the business world in general...might set me straight on this.
actually your purist pros still use it....search “zone system”.
I have my old hasselblad that uses 120 and my shots out here in the woods..winter and fall blow digi shots out of the water
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.