Polaroid
Who has not heard of a Polaroid camera? The company itself is relatively young when compared to some of the other giants in the industry; after all, it was only founded in 1937. Yet in just ten short years it managed to take the camera market by storm. When Polaroid invented the instant film camera in 1948, it was among the first to do so, and customer demand went soaring. Even though Kodak sought to limit the activities of Polaroid via the court system, the suit was unsuccessful, and the Polaroid instant camera became the hallmark of the company. Kodak took the loss of the suit to heart, and actually decided to leave the instant camera market completely to Polaroid.

Since then the company has come a long ways in the camera business. There is now the pink Polaroid digital camera that is of special appeal to the young teen market, and also the Polaroid I-Zone camera. Yet thus far the company has been unable to recapture the revolution it began with the instant camera and no matter that the Polaroid pink digital camera is extremely popular, generally speaking a Polaroid digital camera is not at the top of the list of cameras that someone would consider purchasing.

To this end it is not surprising that Polaroid began to lose money rather than make money, and 2001 was the year that the illustrious company that began to win the hearts of consumers early on was forced to file for bankruptcy protection. Like many bankruptcy proceedings, this one soon came under fire for the fact that while individual stockholders were left out in the cold, company executives were able to retain bonuses and severance packages. Polaroid is no longer the company that so many have come to know and love, and as a matter of fact it has been sold off in part to a Bank One subsidiary. Manufacturing at this point in time is done in China, and products are shipped to the United States. New products are not currently planned, and it is questionable if what is left of the company will ever recapture its former glory.