Hi! Thanks for a very interesting question will_fawcett-ga!
Kodak actually came very far behind in the pack when it comes to
market share in the digital camera market. At the start of 2001 Kodak
was number 4 in the digital camera market behind Sony, Olympus and HP.
However towards the end of that year, Kodak made significant gains and
held the No. 2 spot.
?Overall market share leaders for the year were Sony at 23 percent,
Olympus at 16 percent and Hewlett-Packard at 15 percent.?
?Eastman Kodak, which held the No. 4 spot for 2001, made a big jump at
the end of the year. In the fourth quarter, Kodak climbed to second
place with 17 percent market share.?
?U.S. digital camera sales shoot up?
http://news.com.com/2100-1040_3-827470.html
But was Kodak really late in entering the digital camera market?
Actually the answer is ?NO?! Kodak has been investing in digital
technology for decades.
?In the late '80s Kodak developed the first prototype digital camera,
a professional model called the Dl that debuted in 1990. That same
year the company introduced the first digital storage device for
photographs, the PhotoCD, which found a niche with pros but flopped as
a mass-market product.?
?George Fisher arrived as CEO in 1993 and poured money into R&D, which
led to a stream of ever-more sophisticated digital cameras, and
brought in fresh management from outside the company. But Fisher's
investments took too long to pay off. Eased out at the end of 1999, a
year before his contract expired, Fisher was replaced as CEO by Kodak
lifer Daniel Carp.?
?By 2000, Kodak was the No. 2 seller of digital cameras, behind Sony.
But Kodak loses around $60 on every digital camera it sells, hoping to
eventually make the money from online services, printers or other
products.?
?Can Kodak Find Its Focus?(Company Business and Marketing)?
http://www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m0HWW/27_4/76964766/p2/article.jhtml?term=
Kodak COO Antonio Perez had had this to say about the problem.
?Kodak did two things: one that was very good, and one that wasn?t so
good. The one that was good was the investment in digital technology.
It was very intense all along the way. Luckily.?
?What they didn?t do well, is they didn?t commercialize it. Why not?
Probably because they were doing so well with analog. The thinking was
?it?s not the time.?"
?Kodak: Better Late than Never?
http://www.alwayson-network.com/comments.php?id=2589_0_4_0_C
In one article I found, the writer provides some great insights on why
Kodak failed to profit very early on with this technology.
?Targeting markets, not customers: The press release announcing
Kodak's new strategy uses the word market or markets 15 times, but
only uses the word customer twice--and one of those is as a risk
factor. Sure, the target audience is investors, but the words echo
Kodak's recent obsession with sheer numbers. The result has been
confusion to Kodak's customers, who see digital products come and go
with little apparent long term commitment from Kodak to their needs.?
?Spending, not learning: Kodak has been one of the first entrants and
an early leader in almost every important category of digital imaging
product or innovation. But a rush to judge their own efforts and a
corporate culture not used to change caused many of those efforts to
die out before they had time to truly catch on. Rather than fixing
their culture, Kodak often went out and acquired new technologies and
products which then failed or under-achieved the same way.?
?Fighting with Film: Kodak, like every company with a large 'cash-cow'
business being replaced by new technology, has struggled with how to
position digital products and not cannibalize their existing
products.?
?Wither or Whither Kodak??
http://www.nikondigital.org/dps/dps-v-2-13.htm
So what is Kodak?s position now in relation with its competitors? If
you are a Kodak fan then you would be glad to know that at the end of
2003, the company is now the market leader for digital cameras. Sony
took 2nd place while Canon was 3rd.
?Kodak-branded digital cameras were 19.4 percent of total units sold
in the fourth quarter, which includes the pivotal holiday shopping
season, up from 12.8 percent in the third quarter, and 14.1 percent a
year ago, according to market research firm NPD Group.?
?Sony's fourth-quarter percentage share dropped to 13.2 from 15.7 in
the third quarter and Canon's dipped to 12.8 from 14.8, NPD said. In
the fourth quarter of 2002, Sony led with a 16.1 percent share.?
?Kodak ended 2003 with digital camera sales boost?
http://in.tech.yahoo.com/040213/137/2bguv.html
Will this trend continue for Kodak? Will they be now reaping the
fruits of their 2 decade long labor in digital technology research?
Only time will tell?
Search terms used:
Kodak late entry digital market
Kodak "digital camera" "market share"
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Regards,
Easterangel-ga
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