In 1888, George Eastman invented the handheld roll-film-based camera known as Kodak. This camera was the first of its kind to achieve commercial success. The success of the camera was so profound that Eastman decided to change the name of his company from Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company to Eastman Kodak Company, as it became synonymous with the brand.
Within ten years, Kodak had sold over 1.5 million cameras, completely revolutionizing amateur photography. The company continued to innovate, releasing the Kodak Brownie, the first pocket camera, in 1900. This made personal photography even more convenient, as compared to the original Kodak camera, which required shipping with the film stock in order for the roll to be developed. Throughout the 1900s, Kodak introduced numerous advancements, such as the Kodachrome full-color film in 1935, the affordable cartridge-based Instamatic camera in 1963, and even the first digital camera in 1975. In subsequent decades, Kodak made further digital innovations, including the debut of the first DSLR camera in 1991.
However, the release of the first digital camera in 1975 foreshadowed a turning point for Kodak. The company decided to abandon the project due to concerns that digital advancements would jeopardize its primary revenue stream—film sales. Even when Kodak eventually embraced digital technology in the early 2000s, it adhered to the traditional business model of treating cameras as loss leaders. The company hoped to leverage digital cameras to promote web and printing services, but it ended up losing $60 on each camera sold.
Meanwhile, Fujifilm, a Japanese competitor, aggressively expanded into the U.S. market in the 1980s. This move had a direct impact on Kodak’s market share in film stock sales, prompting Kodak to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization (WTO). Unfortunately for Kodak, its complaint was rejected in 1998.
