Kodak to stop making digital cameras
KODAK will stop making digital cameras in the next six months, the company has said.
Eastman Kodak Co invented the digital camera, in 1975, but said that it will stop making digital cameras in the first half of this year.
The company said it would try to licence its brand to other camera manufacturers and, according to a spokesman, had already received "significant interest".
Kodak filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last month, having lost almost 90 per cent of its market value in 2011.
Despite its history as a digital pioneer, the company struggled to adapt as digital photography became more popular with consumers.
First the 130-year-old company watched demand for traditional photographic film collapse. It stopped manufacturing film cameras in 2004 and made its final roll of 35mm colour film in 2009.
Later it saw smartphones eat into the lower end of the digital camera market. Only six years ago, Kodak was one of the three leading digital camera makers in the world.
Antonio Perez, Kodak's chief executive and chairman, has decided that the company's future lies in the commercial and consumer printer business. The printer market is still dominated by HP, with rivals Canon and Epson ahead of Kodak.
"The printer initiative took over (in the last decade), and they took their eye off the ball in the camera and camcorder space," IDC analyst Christopher Chute told Reuters.
The first working digital camera was built by Kodak engineer Steven Sasson in 1975. The 3.6kg device stored its 0.01-megapixel images on cassette tape. Each picture took 23 seconds to expose.
In addition to the first digital camera, Kodak made the first digital camera with built-in WiFi, the first digital camera with a touchscreen, and invented organic light-emitting diode (OLED) technology, which is vital to a new generation of screens.
- Shane Richmond
© Telegraph.co.uk
