[treflop]

Kodak was probably a chemical company first with a depth of chemical knowledge (a bulk of the development of photography was the design of film chemicals).

Fujifilm, Kodak’s later main competitor, was in the same boat and they just leaned into chemicals more.

Fujifilm survived and then went back to photography and now makes instant photography film again. They also make digital cameras that have a decent following.

Kodak could have probably done the same. They were probably right to to not invest in digital, but they were probably wrong to not invest in chemicals, their actual main strength.

[hattmall]

But they did invest in digitals, heavily. There just wasn't enough there to power the huge ship that had been driven by film. Even if they controlled the entire digitals market it wouldn't compare to the previous film market. Perhaps chemicals could have been a saving grace, but I believe Fujifilm had a sufficiently cushioned blow due to the Xerox subsidiary and the more favorable Japanese Business environment. In contrast to Kodak, Fujifilm didn't suffer a significant reduction in government revenue.

[treflop]

I think the big problem was that digital technology just wasn’t good yet to bother making a digital camera. It’s not just the sensor… it’s also storage and processing and it took a few decades before digital cameras were good.

Investing in digital cameras was going to require many years of R&D with little payback. Someone like Sony could do it because they have all these other business sectors to subsidize development.

If Kodak couldn’t go into the chemical business, I’m not sure what else they could have done then.

[woleium]

They also had a nuclear reactor in a basement. I have no idea when that was commissioned or what research they were doing with it

https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/local/2016/08/18/...

[ghaff]

Fujifilm was also just a much smaller company. Which isn’t necessarily an advantage but probably was in this case—and Fujifilm went through some tough times too.

[kalleboo]

> Fujifilm survived and then went back to photography and now makes instant photography film again

It's actually funny how Fujifilm's single largest generator of revenue is again analog film

[bradfa]

Kodak did invest heavily into chemicals, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastman_Chemical_Company

[kalleboo]

As that article states, they spun it off as a separate company in 1994, before digital photography hit.

Kodak management's mistake was laser-focusing on consumer imaging, and spinning off all of its other businesses like chemical, medical, office systems, etc. Consumer imaging was the one thing that dropped to zero in value as it became a commodity, and Fujifilm survived through those other businesses.