Chemical versus digital

Advertisement for Kodak Ektar film, National Geographic September 1989

Originally introducing in 1989, Ektar film was known for its fine grain. The problem was this film was introduced 14 years after Steven Sasson, a Kodak engineer, invented the  digital camera.

In retrospect it is not surprising that film lost the battle with the digital camera. While advances in film chemistry were slow and incremental, the resolution of the digital camera grew rapidly, only constrained by Moore's Law.

The original digital camera had a resolution of only 0.01 megapixels, and today the cameras in smartphones offer 1000 times resolution.

Kodak lost the race in the digital camera business because the management were reluctant to kill the cash cow that film represented.

The lesson that should be learned from this is that even though you may not be willing to compete with yourself, it does not mean that others won't take the opportunity.