Kodak's Getting Out of the Camera Business Altogether

Poor Eastman Kodak: The company that led the development of digital camera technology said on Thursday it would stop making digital cameras, video cameras, and digital frames. The announcement means Kodak's on the way out of the photography business altogether, having already killed its Kodachrome film in 2009. "Kodak sees home photo printers, high-speed commercial inkjet presses, workflow software and packaging as the core of its future business," the Associated Press reported. The Rochester, New York-based company filed for bankruptcy this year, and it expects to recoup some pretty big savings by getting rid of its stand-alone camera sales, Reuters reports: Kodak will take a charge of about $30 million to leave the business. It expects the exit to generate more than $100 million in annual operating savings." But it's sad, because as the AP pointed out, Kodak invested a lot in developing digital technology that then pretty much killed it: "Through the 1990s, Kodak spent some $4 billion developing the photo technology inside most of today's cellphones and digital devices. But a reluctance to ease its heavy financial reliance on film allowed rivals like Canon Inc. and Sony Corp. to rush into the fast-emerging digital arena."