POLAROID R.I.P.

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Polaroid shutters the Polaroid

The photography company long known for its self-developing film
cameras moves to focus on printers and digital technology.

BOSTON (AP) -- Polaroid is dropping the technology it pioneered long
before digital photography rendered instant film obsolete to all but a
few nostalgia buffs.

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 year's closures 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.

The company stopped making instant cameras over the past two years.

"We're trying to reinvent Polaroid so it lives on for the next 30 to
40 years," Tom Beaudoin, Polaroid's president, chief operating officer
and chief financial officer, said in a phone interview Friday, after
the company's plans were reported in The Boston Globe.


Polaroid failed to embrace the digital technology that has transformed
photography, instead sticking to its belief that many photographers
who didn't want to wait to get pictures developed would hold onto
their old Polaroid cameras.

Global sales of traditional camera film have been dropping about 25
percent to 30 percent per year, "and I've got to believe instant film
has been falling as fast if not faster," said Ed Lee, a digital
photography analyst at the research firm InfoTrends Inc.

"At some point in time, it had to reach the point where it was going
to be uneconomical to keep producing instant film," Lee said.

Privately held Polaroid doesn't disclose financial details about its
instant film business.

Polaroid instant film will be available in stores through next year,
the company said - after which, Lee said, Japan's Fujifilm (FUJI) will
be the only major maker of instant film.

Polaroid got its start making polarized sunglasses in the 1930s, and
introduced its first instant camera in 1948. Film packs contained the
chemicals for developing images inside the camera, and photos emerged
from the camera in less than a minute.


Polaroid's overall revenue from instant cameras, film and other
products peaked in 1991 at nearly $3 billion. The company went into
bankruptcy in 2001 and was bought four years later for $426 million by
Minnetonka, Minn.-based consumer products company Petters Group
Worldwide.

Polaroid's newly announced job cuts include 150 positions to be
eliminated over the next couple months at Massachusetts operations in
Norwood and Waltham, which make large-format films for technical and
industrial photography. Later this year, Polaroid will close plants
employing 300 workers in the Mexican state of Queretaro and in
Enschede, Netherlands.

Meanwhile, Polaroid is seeking a partner to acquire licensing rights
for its instant film, in hopes that another firm will continue making
the film to supply Polaroid enthusiasts.

As it seeks to gain a foothold in digital photography this year,
Polaroid plans to sell an 8-ounce photo printer slightly bigger than a
deck of cards that requires no ink and prints business card-sized
pictures. It uses thermal printing technology from Zink Imaging,
founded by private investors who bought technologies from Polaroid as
it was coming out of bankruptcy.

Polaroid also has its brand name on foreign-made TVs, DVD players,
digital photo frames, cameras and MP3 music players. Those products
generated nearly $1 billion in revenue last year for Polaroid's parent
firm, Beaudoin said.