Why Free Photos Bankrupted Kodak

In 2005, Kodak sold more digital cameras in America than anyone. In 2012, it went bankrupt. The reason fits in two words: free photos. The true story of why Kodak failed: George Eastman's film machine, Steven Sasson's 1975 digital camera, and what happened when each new photo cost nothing. For a hundred years, the photos people took made money for Kodak: film, chemicals and paper for the prints. Kodak saw digital coming, and in America it even won the digital camera race. But a digital camera needs no film. Simple words, real history. CHAPTERS 0:00 No. 1 in US digital cameras, then bankrupt 0:30 You Press the Button 2:01 The Toaster 3:54 Winning the Wrong Race 5:56 No Film Inside 7:36 How Fujifilm survived 8:00 Why free photos broke Kodak 8:32 Next: Isaac Newton's big loss SOURCES Eastman Kodak 10-K annual reports (1997, 2005, 2011, 2012) and 8-K filings (2012), SEC EDGAR J. Estrin, "Kodak's First Digital Moment", New York Times Lens (2015): Steven Sasson's own account N. Vinokurova & R. Kapoor, "Kodak's Surprisingly Long Journey towards Strategic Renewal", Wharton working paper (draft, 2022) W. Shih, "The Real Lessons From Kodak's Decline", MIT Sloan Management Review (2016) University of Cambridge, "The rise and fall of Kodak's moment" (on K. Munir's research, 2012); AP/IDC (2006); CIPA camera shipment data Rochester Business Journal (2017); NPR/WXXI (2012); PBS NewsHour (2012); George Eastman Museum; nippon.com (2013) Archive images: public domain or CC0, from the Library of Congress, Wikimedia Commons, US patents (USPTO), SEC filings, the Rijksmuseum (Newton portrait) and Sammlung Commodore (South Sea receipt). Made with AI-assisted art in our own engraved style and an AI narrator voice. A person checked the research and script. A history story, not financial advice. Our first story, the Mississippi Bubble:    • The Mississippi Bubble: Why France Burned ...   Subscribe for the next story:    / @whystorio   #Kodak #BusinessHistory #History