[jeffbee]

Kodak was the undisputed king of digital photography from the moment they invented it until about the year 1999, when Nikon finally came out with the D1.

The idea that Kodak somehow ignored digital is a weird silicon valley fairy tale. Kodak shipped a 6 megapixel digital camera in 1995, years before anyone even came close (arguably, the Nikon D1X was the first comparable competitor, and it hit the market in 2001). What killed Kodak was not resting on their laurels, it was actually overspending on R&D that went nowhere, like their disastrous entrance into the pharmaceuticals market.