Polaroid’s Suicide

By MARK JEWELL
The Associated Press
Friday, February 8, 2008; 4:54 PM

“Polaroid Corp. is dropping the technology it pioneered long before digital photography rendered instant film obsolete to all but a few nostalgia buffs.”

Polaroid is closing factories in Massachusetts, Mexico and the Netherlands and cutting 450 jobs as the brand synonymous with instant images focuses on ventures such as a portable printer for images from cell phones and Polaroid-branded digital cameras, televisions and DVD players.

The company stopped making instant cameras over the past two years.

“We’re trying to reinvent Polaroid so it lives on for the next 30 to 40 years,” Tom Beaudoin, Polaroid’s president, chief operating officer and chief financial officer, said in a phone interview Friday, after the company’s plans were reported in The Boston Globe.

Polaroid failed to embrace the digital technology that has transformed photography, instead sticking to its belief that many photographers who didn’t want to wait to get pictures developed would hold onto their old Polaroid cameras.

Global sales of traditional camera film have been dropping about 25 percent to 30 percent per year, “and I’ve got to believe instant film has been falling as fast if not faster,” said Ed Lee, a digital photography analyst at the research firm InfoTrends Inc.

“At some point in time, it had to reach the point where it was going to be uneconomical to keep producing instant film,” Lee said.

Privately held Polaroid doesn’t disclose financial details about its instant film business.

Polaroid instant film will be available in stores through next year, the company said _ after which, Lee said, Japan’s Fujifilm will be the only major maker of instant film.

Polaroid got its start making polarized sunglasses in the 1930s, and introduced its first instant camera in 1948. Film packs contained the chemicals for developing images inside the camera, and photos emerged from the camera in less than a minute.

Polaroid’s overall revenue from instant cameras, film and other products peaked in 1991 at nearly $3 billion. The company went into bankruptcy in 2001 and was bought four years later for $426 million by Minnetonka, Minn.-based consumer products company Petters Group Worldwide.

Meanwhile, Polaroid is seeking a partner to acquire licensing rights for its instant film, in hopes that another firm will continue making the film to supply Polaroid enthusiasts.

INFO taken from : washingtonpost.com
photo below taken from: www.wildcalifornia.org

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Reavel’s Personal Note on this Subject:

I can’t believe this. I knew they will come to an end but not so fast. Come on we all love that old looks on the photos. The excitement of waiting the burden when it came they way it wasnt expected, the funky hues the film made. I just fell in love with the idea of having one after seen lots of polaroids photos of some websites. I still want one so i will have to hurry up before people buy them just to have one. Some people might do that. At least we will be able to buy the films anyways. But no more cameras that is sad. I wonder what the fashion industry will say and do since many used them for many things. Also on XMas and Three Kings Day season… the kids wont be able to get the photos with them to keep as a memory that is sad, breaking a childs dream of having a pic with Santa, Gaspar, Melchor and Baltazar. Lets see what happens and I do hope somebody buys the lisence from them. Polaroid will always be part of us. Ohh the good old things are fading away and some could care less. Damn you digital world… 😦