> Nah. K never got any sales volume traction in digital. They fell on their
> tukus and were out of the game before there was any volume. C, on the other
> hand, is still the volume leader. L has the "sell a very few things and make
> a lot of margin on each" niche sewn up. C is ahead in the "sell a whole lot
> of things and make a reasonable profit on them all" thing.
Kodak refused to acknowledge the existential crisis that was upon
them. There was a very distinct point where they gave up, stuck their
heads under their pillows and hoped that it would all just go away.
When they bailed out of the pro camera market, it was curtains.
Whether it was a monetary loss or not, it was a sign to the entire
industry that they packed it in and were hoping that death wouldn't be
too painful. What they should have done is kept trying, trying,
trying. A model of the month? Sure, why not. Forget normal
cycles--when you are in crisis mode, you do anything and everything to
make it through.
A Bob Hoover quote comes to mind: "If you are faced with a forced
landing, fly the thing as far into the crash as possible."
Kodak didn't. They gave up and cried "mommy" long before the airplane
became a lawn dart.
> Notice that one result of their conservatism is that they don't screw up.
So far it only appears that they haven't screwed up. But they have
conceded a huge part of the market to Sony and Fuji. Those two
companies have become disrupters and Canon has yet to respond in a way
that keeps them in check. Neither one will kill Canon, but what they
will do is make it less possible for Canon to have a large enough of
the market pie to be able to remain the market leader for the next
generation. Canon has squandered market dominance by not continuing
their innovative edge. The history of photography is littered with
companies just like Canon, that did exactly what Canon is doing now.
HOWEVER, there are also examples where companies were so cutting edge
that they had one product so defective that it destroyed the company.
AG Schnozz
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