Kodak Ready To Bridge Film And Digital?
from the the-answer-is-software dept
Last week we were talking about how Kodak was struggling to find a place for itself in the new digital world. This week, we have an article saying that they may have found the sweet spot between digital and analog photography by focusing on their photo processing software which is used to correct common problems in photographs. The article quotes an analyst as saying that this fits in perfectly with a world that straddles both digital and analog. The software can work on top of their ofoto hosting service, making it easier for analog photographers to turn their pictures into digital images (and to pay for print outs). It also can be used for improving the quality of digital photos. I’m not convinced that this ia a viable long term strategy, but it certainly seems to make sense in the near future.
Comments on “Kodak Ready To Bridge Film And Digital?”
An odd article
The referenced article was a bit strange. It did not say that Kodak is linking Perfect Touch with its digital services such as Ofoto. Instead, it was mainly about an analyst who thinks that Kodak is missing the boat by not linking the two: “Ausnit said Kodak has not yet played them to its greatest advantage, due largely to the company’s seeming reluctance to bundle ofoto with PT processing.”
Although its implementation happens to be digital, Perfect Touch is an enhancement to Kodak’s “DLS” film developing/printing system. It’s not related to digital photography at all.
Ausnit’s real complaint seems to be that Kodak does not offer a “film-to-Ofoto” service as part of their developing and printing. He apparently doesn’t know that Kodak does offer such a service, not to Ofoto but to Kodak’s in-house “Picture Center Online” system (previously PhotoNet). I don’t know what the pricing is for PCO, but as I recall the pricing for PhotoNet was hopelessly noncompetitive. Something like $8 a roll, and the pictures were only available for a week or so, if memory serves.
Uber-Company
My sense (from working at Kodak before) is that they are a lot like IBM — they’re a huge, chaotic company that isn’t too good at normal business anymore, but better at esoteric research that will cause revolutions several years from now.
There are too many PhD’s working at Kodak to not see how digital media will overtake analog photography. I have a hunch that Kodak is letting people assume that digital photography will take over analog — before Kodak comes out with some new, totally different technology that will annihilate digital technology players.
People have been predicting the death of IBM for years, and they continue to come out with new generations of chips or supercomputers.