Polaroid has completed its transition from a real company to something that just slaps its brand on other people's hardware. It announced this week that it will stop manufacturing its iconic instant film. From the Associated Press:
"Polaroid is closing factories in Massachusetts, Mexico and the Netherlands and cutting 450 jobs as the brand synonymous with instant images focuses on ventures such as a portable printer for images from cell phones and Polaroid-branded digital cameras, televisions and DVD players. [This] will leave Polaroid with 150 employees at its Concord headquarters and a site in the nearby Boston suburb of Waltham, down from peak global employment of nearly 21,000 in 1978."
This is one of those quiet moments in tech history, marking the end of an era: there'll no more instant film for many Polaroid cameras, unless a cottage industry can (and is permitted to) form. Polaroid has, in the past, been aggressive about defending its patents, taking down Kodak in the 1980s when it tried to muscle in on instant photography. Fujifilm makes instant film compatible with Polaroid Type 100, however -- if it can turn a profit on this stuff already, maybe it'll step in to cover more of the Polaroid range.
source: WIRED
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