Yet Another Restructuring

Today, camera manufacturer Konica Minolta announced that it would be getting out of the camera business within the next year. Konica Minolta, while not having invented the 35mm camera, is famous for making the first autofocus one. And, a year from now, they won't make any. They will instead focus on their printer and copier business.

This is the third big business in as many years that has gotten out of the business that they basically created. (The other two were AT&T (for a while) and IBM, who both got out of the phone and PC businesses.)

Konica Minolta cites more competition in the marketplace as their reason for abandoning their camera business. This is probably true. Most people would blame bigger companies, like Sony or Kodak (which doesn't even make 35mm cameras anymore), putting them out of business. (Notice that Leica, which actually did invent the 35mm camera, has no problem staying in business, even though its cameras sell for thousands of dollars.) Me, not having a problem with "big business," I blame the upstarts.

Remember Dell, that little computer company? Have ya seen one of their catalogs recently? They sell everything now. (I'm pretty sure I saw a couple of pages dedicated to beauty products in their last catalog.) And, yes, they manufacture and sell cameras. It's companies like this, that suddenly jump into the marketplace with low-cost product, that fuck up established businesses. Sony and Kodak have been making camera forever. You know where they are in the marketplace. But then Dell, which has a huge fanbase of loyal consumers, comes in, and they have cameras now. And someone whose camera business was already lagging has to give up the ship.

Oh well. A shame, we'll all get over it.