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12/04/09
At least, that was what they were telling the troops (me included) when I worked for them.
12/04/09
For those not in Rochester, EK is headquartered there. EK's employment in Rochester peak in 1983 with about 68,500 people. It now has less than 8,000 there.
IMHO, EK's downfall is the result of denial. EK demonstrated the first digital camera concept, built the first DSLR for the US military and NASA, and designed the Apple QuickTake 100, the first consumer digital camera. Unfortunately, senior management in the 90's adamently denied that digital photography was going to overtake film as quickly as it did. I remember being told that it would be about 2010 before digital would overtake film.
In the 90's, they brought in George Fisher, their first and still only outside CEO. George came over from Motorola, in a time when Motorola ruled the cellphone industry. Unfortunately, George's efforts to quickly turn the 100+ year old behemoth was, IMHO, sabotaged from within. His division managers kept their heads in the sand and denied that EK needed to change quickly.
I had high hopes that EK would be able to use OLED to recover -- or at least stabilize -- but that's now impossible. Someday soon, I completely expect to read that Kodak is being bought-up by an investment group and liquidated piece-by-piece.
Can anyone think of any other company which has suck so far so quickly?
12/04/09
12/04/09
12/04/09
Given the approximate time you were there, I'd bet there was a lot of pressure to cater to Wall Street's myopic, "make this quarter look good" mentality and not the long term survival of the company. It's unfortunate that this is much too common.
On that, I have to admire the Japanese mentality of driving toward 5-, 10-, or even 20-year goals rather than just this quarter's or this year's results.
12/04/09
12/04/09
12/04/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
#tips
11/19/09
11/20/09
#tips
11/19/09
Also there's no way Apple makes anything at a loss. Ever.
How about Gizmodo starts filtering their "journalism", rather than reblogging any halfwit's dart-board rumor mongering.
11/19/09
"That crazy DigiTimes—purveyors of always-failed-Apple rumors"
and
"No word yet from them on the rumored matter synthesizer and teleporter module, but give it a couple more months, and they will spill it all out. "
11/20/09
@saronian: Only two of those are official titles. I'd like to think it's pretty simple. Macbooks = plastic, Macbook Pros= aluminum, Air = thin and aluminum.
11/19/09
1. Recreate an existing niche device
2. Drive fanboys wild with covert marketing winks/nods/half truths and denials
3. Add a little mysticism with slick technology and design
4. Price it DOUBLE what would be expected while HALVING its utility with DRM/quirky Apple restrictions
5. Cry foul when mainstream devices are developed and leave it in the dust as a quirky expensive exception with 5% marketshare.
11/19/09
6. Profit!
11/19/09
[sigh]
11/19/09
11/19/09
Funny, then, that Apple's sales have been growing despite the recession.
11/19/09
11/19/09
If Apple insists on stuffing OLED into this poor thing, it's going to join the ranks of the Macbook Air and G4 cube as niche products that were cool but too few could afford.
11/19/09
11/19/09
[www.oled-display.net]
11/19/09
And when was the last time Apple jumped on an "early-adopter" technology they didn't develop? They are usually WAY more conservative than the rest of the market.
11/19/09
10/30/09
GE has already got a working prototype (linked below). While it may be lousy and expensive, the technology is advancing quickly, and I think LG is banking on this stuff, to make a bold statement like "OLEDs will be cheaper than LCDs in the future".
[gizmodo.com]
10/30/09
10/30/09