Gregory Lee

Zhang (2018) notes that “by 1976, 85% of all film cameras and 90% of all film sold in the US was Kodak”.

general, digital cameras were a massive revolution for photography. Being digital, the technology and its use was able to spread exponentially. Notably, digitalization allowed customers to take exponentially more photographs than with film, which was expensive both to buy and to have developed. Film, therefore, could grow at best linearly.

Later, cellphones began to include cameras as an added feature, meaning that almost everyone began to acquire photography capabilities without the need to own a dedicated camera. Unless they partnered with cellphone manufacturers, this was bad news for camera manufacturers as their product had essentially disappeared (dematerialized) as a stand-alone device in many if not most households.