f8lee Loc: New Mexico

A petabyte is 1000 Terabytes, a terabyte is 1000 Gigabytes, etc. (actually 1024 but it's easier for common purposes to round down to 1000)

ronesmith

One word. "DIGITAL"

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

No doubt. I wonder what effect this will have on the enormous Chinese consumer market? The global slowdown is already having an impact, but as robotic manufacturing becomes ever cheaper, even Chinese, Indian, and Vietnamese workers may be priced out of the manufacturing process. Fewer workers = fewer consumers to buy the cheap electronic goods.

Interesting times. What sector will produce the next Henry Ford level idea to create new consumers?

Andy

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Rich - you are a master at mixing it up, aren't you?

Because you went on THAT bent - you completely obscured the point I was making … well done!!!!

rcarol

That was a very interesting article. Thanks.

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Wow!!! … That much, huh, Bob?

In a handheld? … Never happen!!!!!

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Didn't know any cameras were made in India, Andy … they're more in the electronics service industry. Call any camera manufacturer's helpline … who do you get? … Some Indian ….

Same with virtually any electronics, now … Indians pick up the phone …

That's the sector which will create the next Model T, Andy - the Cellphone biz … mark my words!!! … But, unlike - Henry Ford's motto - any color, as long as it's black - the new Model T will be any color in the rainbow!!!

larryepage Loc: North Texas area

Companies survive on a combination of innovation and sustainability.

One big problem is that it is not possible to know for sure whether an innovation will be accepted at all, and it is not possible to know in advance whether it will become the new standard and if it does, how long that will take.

For instance, look back into ancient history at music compact discs. There were many who considered them a "flash in the pan" with unacceptably harsh sound. Others adopted them quickly because they could easily reproduce the entire audible frequency range (and even a little bit more) better than the best available turntable/tonearm/cartridge combinations. I liked them because they had a very wide dynamic range and with just a little care did not generate noise from surface contamination. After something of an extended introductory period, the day arrived when vinyl records had disappeared overnight for all practical purposes. I think we were all resigned to the eventual shift, but I also think that essentially everyone was shocked by the suddenness with which it actually happened. And if you remember, those CDs sold for between 2 and 3 times the price of the vinyl LPs they replaced.

I worked for 17 years in a number of positions in a plant that produced refrigerated dough products...canned biscuits, canned cinnamon rolls, cookie dough, and pie crust dough. The pie crusts were mixed, sheeted (rolled out), cut, folded into quarters, and packed into boxes for storage in the refrigerator. The problem was that people would not read the instructions and warm the dough up before unfolding it, resulting in cracks that impacted baking quality. So we developed a different packaging process that rolled the pie crusts instead of folding them. It is a great process...unrolling does not crack the dough like unfolding does. We also developed a five year plan to maintain both packaging methods while our customers migrated from folded to rolled pie crusts. Imagine our surprise when our customers told us that no...they would not transition over a period of five years. We produced our final package of folded pie crusts just less than 6 months after shipping the first package of rolled pie crusts. (In this case, there was no significant change in price.)

These examples are not necessarily the norm. Innovation is difficult work. Change is also hard work...sometimes harder. As companies get bigger, both get even harder. This has been made worse, I think, by the fashionable "requirement" over the past 40 years or so that each company have a Mission Statement...a crafted, usually written document stating the organization's purpose and direction. Anything not aligned with the mission is just a distraction and must be avoided.

What does all that have to do with this discussion? W. Edwards Deming was one of about 5 people who were truly important to businesses and industries during the last century. He boiled the responsibilities of a company down to three simple principles, which can be found in any of his later writings:
1. Provide useful goods and services.
2. Stay in business.
3. Provide jobs.

These appear deceptively simple. Lots of companies don't get it (at least fully). For instance, they don't like #3. They don't understand that if they don't (collectively) provide jobs, there is eventually no market for whatever it is that they are making. Staying in business is a big one...it means making a reasonable amount of profit producing things or services that customers are willing to pay for...the useful goods and services of #1.

The world today has become very complicated. The kids I work with most days are going to make it more complicated. For one thing...most of them do not care about memories. They are only interested in the moment and the future (sort of). Most of our grandkids are not really, truly interested in the photographs that we are taking or that are in our albums. My niece (who is otherwise a bit of an iconoclast in her generation) is not interested in the photographs that my parents have of her ancestors or in the detailed genealogical my mother has assembled and organized. They are being taught that chemicals chemical plants, and chemical companies are dangerous, so they are OK with the regulations that would make it most likely impossible for Kodak to re-establish themselves as an industrial organization in the United States.

So no...I do not expect to ever see Kodak as a viable entity again, at least in the United States, in the absence of significant changes in thoughts and attitudes.

Rich1939 Loc: Pike County Penna.

Interestingly in 1994 Eastman Kodak spun off Eastman Chemical Co. which is now listed on the Fortune 500. Just on the surface of it I have the feeling they (the BOD) saw the future and wanted to protect that part of the corporation that was still profitable and had a strong future potential. The writing was already on the wall for the future of film.

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Peter it has to do with the boards of large corporation's. Kodak did bot believe that digital was was the future like IBM did not believe in the Laptop.Kodak thought film and chemicals and IBM thought mainframes.

AndyH Loc: Massachusetts and New Hampshire

I was more referring to general electronics manufacturing, Chris, rather than specifically cameras. India has been making a major push to bring manufacturing investment, as have Thailand, Viet Nam, and Malaysia. I remember buying my first Singapore-made Rollei. It took them a couple of years to get it right.

My Henry Ford reference was not to the Model T, but to the "Five Dollar Day". Suddenly, the workers in his factories could afford to purchase the goods they were manufacturing. This is the idea that really changed the world and was largely responsible for creating today's consumer economy. For the past several decades, the Chinese government and manufacturers, particularly in the electronics sector, have created hundreds of thousands of new consumers by increasing wages. If the automation and robotics trend continues, consumer demand will decline as there are fewer and fewer "new" consumers. Will there be millions of new Indian and Southeast Asian consumers to take up the gap? Or will we have to figure out how to sell something to the machines?

Cheers,
Andy

ELNikkor

I grew up here, moved away for 40 years, and moved back to Rochester, NY. I've seen Kodak in its heyday and noted its fall while I was elsewhere. My dad and most of my relatives and brothers and their wives were at one time Kodak employees. I joked that it was I who kept them employed by shooting exclusively Kodak film and a lot of it. Returning to Rochester 3 years ago, the business landscape is much different than in the good ole days, but just yesterday I was in a lab and saw some Ektar and Tri-x film for sale, reminding me of the times I also shot film. Now, my 20 year old son, who has only known digital and cell phones, is fascinated with the old cameras and lenses, and started shooting film. I'm resolving to set up the darkroom in the cellar again, and revive some of the way it used to be. Good that Ektachrome is on the shelves in that store too, but I really only liked the EPP 100, so I'll wait 'til they bring that back before shooting chrome again.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

1000 TB = 1 PB

David Taylor

Agreed.

Chris T Loc: from England across the pond to New England

Andy … no matter how many robots one makes to take over the manual labor of assembling cameras and other consumer electronics, one still needs technicians to run (and maintain) the robots - right?

And, of course - Robots can't plan the next advances in digital technology … nor, can they dream up the next advances, either … that takes human brainpower … so, that's several areas, still protected …

BTW - I don't think you need to worry about a lack of consumers in the Far East. China, alone - has over 1.4 billion people, already ...

Selling stuff to machines, eh? ... Now - THAT's a riot!!!! ... Ever seen the film - Short Circuit? ... In it, a robot (Number 5) figures out what parts he needs to replace parts he's lost - builds them, and installs them, too!!!