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RolesG t1_j5mmilf wrote

Polaroid is a sad story. They were awesome in the 70s though

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OldMork t1_j5mrg05 wrote

yes, sometimes a company can have almost whole market, and still lost. Blackberry, Nokia, Osborne, Kodak, Facit (calculators) just to mention a few.

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RolesG t1_j5mrnfu wrote

IBM is another good example. They killed off their personal computer business for purely enterprise work.

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OldMork t1_j5mt8q5 wrote

yes they basically created the PC, and later exited the whole market, they also had a printer and laptop division, now all sold. I dont think they have any consumer products at all today, or do they?

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RolesG t1_j5pn4x5 wrote

Nope. They sold the ThinkPad and ThinkCenter name to Lenovo and that was their last consumer product iirc

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Amorougen t1_j5moibv wrote

Goes back way further than the 70's. First commercial one was in 1948.

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RolesG t1_j5mq5ea wrote

Oh I know. A summer camp that I used to work at has a big collection of old cameras, lots of old Polaroids in it.

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tforkner t1_j5rloqo wrote

Yeah, but there was waste associated with each picture. There was paper you had to peel off of the print after you timed its developing, and there was a preservative chemical swab you had to wipe the picture with. I can still remember the smell.

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Amorougen t1_j5rmg5w wrote

But it was top of the technology world for a while. That smell was like acetic acid or vinegar if I remember correctly).

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tforkner t1_j5rmpji wrote

Oh, yeah- that camera was one of my dad's prized possessions and the only thing he had that would have been considered a luxury item back then. I think it was a really early model. He had the flash setup and a box that would hold another photo so you could take a picture of it, making a copy.

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