Kodak r.i.p.

Kodak probably was one of the first brands that i recognized, along with a few foods and automobile makers. Despite inroads by the red box (Agfa) and the Green box (Fuji) and a few others like Ansco and Konica, the Yellow box dominated more than fifty years of my dabbling with photography. It held on to my loyalty even when film started to go away - my first digital cameras were Kodak branded.

Kodak was the focus of two important events in my professional life. During the early 1970s, when several technologies were competing for what became the VCR market, Kodak proposed the "Super-8 Videoplayer." A project was created in which Kodak's Apparatus Division (Rochester) would develop the electromechanical "film transport" and the New Product Engineering organization at GTE Sylvania (Seneca Falls) would develop two custom electronic tubes and electronic circuits tqo be used in a sophisticated "flying spot scanner." Our group was responsible for the electronics.

About ten "VP-1" emerged from a pilot manufacturing run. They worked... sort of... They appeared in a few ads, and were described in technical symposia. The rapid evolution of videotape quickly left film and competing video discs and magnetic wire reorders in the dust. We were left to consider the next big challenge, which was the rapid loss of CRT-based TV set business to Japan.

Kodak re-entered my life about ten years later when I joined Tektronix Laboratories in a business development position. At the time Tek and Kodak shared interest in display and printing technologies but did not directly compete. The two company's research labs favored sharing information. I was designated to be the Tektronix contact person, matching up with a respected representative from Kodak Labs. The result was numerous visits back and forth, creating solid personal & professional relationships but difficulty in quantifying tangible results. The program ended as Tek slipped into oblivion a few years ahead of Kodak.

Today, Jan 19, 2012 , the official news emerged: Kodak is entering bankruptcy. We can hope that it re-merges as a proud company, leading in its chosen businesses, for another hundred years. We can hope that it does not join two other formerly-proud brands, RCA and Sylvania, whose new owners used the labels at this year's CES to differentiate their low-end lines of seemingly generic products.