The novelty and surging popularity of Edwin Land's development of instant cameras and film under the aegis of the Polaroid Corporation in the 1950s sent shudders down the spines of Eastman Kodak and Fuji film- two of the world's largest producers of "standard"-type cameras and film, and through these sales, built photo-finisher businesses world wide. Suddenly, the public was able to shoot, wait and see the results nearly instantly. "By 1959, Polaroid marketed a variety that could take indoor sports pictures without a flash and deliver a print in fifteen seconds. Color went on the market in 1963, followed in 1972 by an entirely new system, called SX-70, in which the positive and negative were not peeled apart. Resembling a large playing card, SX-70 pictures allowed the customer to see the images 'emerge' before their eyes" ("Land" para. 5).
Protected by hundreds of patents, instant photography flourished for over thirty years. So, what went wrong? Why the news that Polaroid ended its instant photography business? The plain and simple fact is- technology passed Polaroid by. The internet, digital cameras, photographs from cell phones- all these changed the way people took pictures. "N TODAY'S WORLD, where almost every cell phone comes with a built-in camera, there is a new definition of instant photos. As a result, an instant-photo institution is looking to redefine itself. Polaroid has announced that it will quit making instant film after it manufactures enough to last the company through 2009. The company stopped making instant cameras for consumers last year" (Rougeout 10).
Because of the digital era's change of focus (no pun intended) consumers left instant photography well behind. Polaroid continued to stick to what it knew best and became obsolete. "Polaroid filed for bankruptcy protection in 2001, and sold most of its assets and trademark name to the private-equity arm of Bank One, now part of JPMorgan Ch...