Today taking pictures it became quite easy. We take out our phone and save the image to our phone in the best quality in seconds or even a split second. Of course, this was not the case before smartphones, digital cameras were invented.

Years ago photos are taken on film, was subsequently suppressed. The pioneer in this field was Kodak, which is what our article is about. But as the years went by, the world started to become more digital and the legend of photography, Kodak, couldn’t keep up with this situation. He literally saw the bottom of the top.

Kodak was a very successful company not only in photography, but also in mass communication, marketing and advertising.

In the 1890s, people could easily buy and use it the first cameras Kodak made it. It was also one of the most famous brands in the world.

However, it turns out that Kodak’s digital failure wasn’t the only reason for its bankruptcy. Yes, it was one of the main reasons it was late in the digital space, but there were many events in the company’s history up until this event. breaking point This accelerated the situation even more.

Let’s first look at these breaking points, namely the history of Kodak.

Founder of Kodak in 1880 George Eastman, started production of the first dry type photo bathroom equipment. Businessman Henry A. Strong realized his success in this business and invested in Eastman and the duo formed a partnership in 1881 called Eastman Dry Plate Company.

In 1884, the growing partnership evolved into a new company with 14 shareholders, namely Eastman Dry Plate and Film Company. Eastman developed the first transparent photographic film in 1886. first handheld camera developed.

“You press the button and we do the rest” In the same year, the name of Kodak was also registered, which quickly entered the world of photography with its slogan.

George Eastman and Thomas Edison

Company, Edison’s movie camera He added success to his success by inventing the transparent film, which played a major part in his work.

The first known X-ray in history It was filmed in 1895 by Wilhelm Röntgen on Kodak film. Kodak then produced film that could quantify radiation, leading to the invention of modern X-rays.

In 1990, the famous Brownie cameras for soldiers were launched, selling for $1.

Thus, individual photography began to spread.

From now on, we will present the main developments in chronological order so as not to make the article last longer.

• 1917 – The first cameras to take aerial photos and unbreakable lenses were developed.
• 1935 – in an amateur sense first color photographic films had been developed.
• 1959 – Kodak announced that the number of users had passed 100 thousand.
• 1962 – The first astronauts in space took pictures of the Earth with Kodak cameras. In this way the company Sales in the US exceed billions of dollars.
• 1963 – known as Instamatic and cameras that can be easily exchanged was put on the market. It was announced that about 50 million had been sold in the 1970s.
• 1972 – Instamatic machines small enough to fit in pocket is made.
• 1975 – Steve Sasson, who worked as an engineer at Kodak, inventor of the first digital camera. However, the company didn’t release the invention, both because it is the world leader in movie cameras and because they didn’t think this technology would go too far.

While developments were taking place in the field of digital photography, Kodak remained indifferent to this field for many years.

After about 10-15 years of silence, Kodak has agreed to conduct research and development in the field of digital photography. investment of nearly five billion dollars created. It has a resolution of 1.4 million pixels, large enough to be used in handheld cameras in 1986. the world’s first megapixel photo sensor developed.

By 1996, Interbrand had succeeded Kodak after giants such as Disney, Coca-Cola and McDonald’s. fourth most valuable brand in the world was declared.

It seemed to be going well, but not at all in the background.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, rival companies began to grow even more because it was too late for the digitizing world. In 2004, the company’s sales and profits began to decline. In 2009, the company OLED was sold to LG. The line of digital cameras and printers called EasyShare was appreciated, but the expected success failed to materialize.

As a result, the company filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

The main reason for Kodak’s golden age up to the 1990s and a major decline after 1996, as we mentioned above, is the growth of strong digital photography and was to develop himself.

In other words, we can say that Kodak suddenly chose to be turned upside down due to wrong planning of the future while succeeding first in digital photography. While several steps have been taken to rectify the situation, the brand has with a debt of $6.7 billion He filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

The company has significantly reduced its debt today and has many products such as digital printing, printing systems, photographic equipment. stands.