Kodak and Fujifilm Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Kodak and Fujifilm - Term Paper Example Throughout this period, the company has undergone through various transformational phases which has seen it even be declared bankrupt in January 2012 (Eastman Kodak Company, 2004). Eastman Kodak Co. is known for its best photographic film products which has for ages, been the central part of its business. Mostly, these products included cameras, printers and other machines for use in the production of film products. This company became very dominant for a longer period of time and history has it that most of the 20th Century, it was the only company that held a high prestigious and dominant position in the industry (Eastman Kodak Company, 2004). The first argument one can give forth is that probably there was no greater competitor back then which left Kodak as the only sole producer of the said photographic materials thus; it thrived as a worldwide monopolist. For instance, the company had nearly 90% of the United States of America film share of the market. The remaining percentage w as left to the struggling small companies which were no match to its growth success (Devereaux et al, 2006). In the late 1990s, Eastman Kodak Company started facing financial struggles, which after in-depth analysis, were found to be due to under-performance in its sales prospects leading it to incurring greater transactional and production costs. The resultant effect was the decline in the sales of its photographic materials. Consequently, Kodak’s dismal performance during this period was attributed to the uptake of information technology by firms in their operations. This sudden shift caught the company unawares since it continued producing these film products when the market for the same was diminishing gradually with each passing moment. Sooner or later, the company had no positive sales records. Its slow response to transit to digital photography despite it having invented the current technology in use, in modern digital cameras, led to its fall. However, as a turnaround at around the year 2007, Kodak started using digital photography in its operations, a move which led to it registering profits in its operations. It also focused on digital printing of the films and even started using generating revenues through an aggressive litigation of patents. In the month of January 2012, the company filed for a bankruptcy protection and followed this move in the succeeding month with an announcement that it had ceased production of pocket video cameras, digital cameras, and the digital picture frames. Instead, it stated that its focus would be on the corporate market of digital imaging. August the same year, the company announced for the sale of its commercial scanners, photographic film but not the motion picture film, and the kiosk operations all of which served as measures to emerge from the bankruptcy state. Kodak also sold most of its patents Intellectual Ventures and RPX Corporation, which was an umbrella corporation for companies like Apple, Amazon, F acebook, Samsung, Microsoft, Google and HTC. Fujifilm Company Ltd. This is a Japanese multinational imaging and photography company that was established in the year 1934 and has its headquarters at Tokyo, Japan. The aim of its establishment was to regard it as the first Japanese photographic company producing photographic films. At its inception, this company had only one goal of being a cinematic-film producer but, overtime, it has grown into being a fully fledged multi-dimensional