Polaroid: The Glorious Past and The Creative Destruction

Polaroid: The Glorious Past and The Creative Destruction

Nattan Plewissara

Musashino University
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Polaroid: The Glorious Past and The Creative Destruction

In the world that is increasingly becoming more advanced, technological

advancement now exists across multiple industry. The aim and goal for those innovations was

to accomplish the goals of existing inventions or technology to functions more efficiently and

better but for those efficiency, what exactly have we gave up? This paper aims to study the

case of Polaroid cameras. How it went from being one of the most popular cameras and the

smartest innovation of its time to the stage of bankruptcy and lose almost all its sales in the

matter of decades. Also, as to how the cameras represented a good case study of creative

destruction.

History

Polaroid Cameras first made its debut in 1948 right after World War II. After the

United States won the war, there was a gap for a new industry to succeed. The demand for

new innovations of photography was on the rise wherein the cameras that was more user-

friendly, time efficient, and cheap. After the debut of Polaroid cameras, despite the price tag

wasn’t cheap, the efficiency and its easy-to-use perks out weight the heavy price. Since then,

the demand for the Polaroid camera has been well on rise for decades to come.

Continuous Development

Ever since its debut in 1948, Polaroid have continued to evolve, getting smaller,

better, faster throughout the 1950s and the 1960s. It suddenly found itself to be the icons of

the 1970s where it makes multiple appearances in pop culture scenes, appearing in multiple

films and music videos in the era. Polaroid enjoyed over $400 million in sales in the late

1960s and since then, Polaroid acknowledged its expanding growth in demands and therefore

expanding its manufacturing and production lines. This decision, however, ultimately leads to

its decline later in the 1980s.

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Declining Point

The start of its decline came fast as soon as the late 1970s kicks in. It is logical for any

business to start adapting to new market ideas and produce new products that would satisfy

the needs of consumers. Polaroid have made a theoretically cautious and logical choice when

it released Polavision which was 8mm instant moving picture cameras. However, the steps

were left uncalculated, and this step drew many criticisms towards the company as it is not

reasonably priced. Many consumers started to have scepticism on Polaroid and its reputation

has been in decline since. Although Polaroid won in court case for its patent lawsuits against

Kodak, it did not extend the company’s financial lifeline for longer.

Final Nail in The Coffin

As the 1990s rolls around the corner, the uses of film cameras such as Polaroid has

exponentially dropped. The newly invented of digital cameras has influenced the market

completely. Digital cameras, likewise the Polaroid cameras, was invented using the very

same principal Polaroid cameras used to developed on: user-friendliness, efficiency, and

cheap. Time has made it easier for digital cameras, however, as they can achieve all three

goals successfully unlike when Polaroid first released which the price tag made a little

hiccups in between consumers.

What Can We Learn?

Polaroid cameras signify a new revolution of photography. When it was first released

in 1948, it did not only transform how photos can be taken but it also transforms who can

take pictures, for how much, and at what time. All the equations for photography were turned

shook and answered. This is the true power of creative destruction. In the world where

consumer’s wants and needs are unlimited, companies have incentives to research and

develop new products which is more efficient and more functional to consumer’s demands.

Polaroid achieves such substantial number of profits because of how genius their innovations
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were. However, those blessings did not last long. Creative destruction in the past century has

been wild and acerated on the scales never seen before in human history. This contributes to

existing technologies that has transform the way we communicate and research new products,

the given technologies were invented from the very same technology it aims to overtake,

creating the loop of creative destruction. Overall, creative destruction is an unintended side

effect to each, and every innovation made. They can be positive side effects as we learn in

Polaroid’s case as to how the company re-pioneered the photography industry. Negative side

effects were also present there as well as we can see how the entire legendary company was

destroyed in the matter of years, contributing to new innovations.

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References

In Focus: The Evolution of the Personal Camera. DPLA. (n.d.). Retrieved January 30, 2023,
from https://dp.la/exhibitions/evolution-personal-camera/polaroid-era 

Lusina, A. (2023, January 9). The rise, fall, and revival of Polaroid: The instant photography
icon. PetaPixel. Retrieved January 30, 2023, from
https://petapixel.com/2021/08/25/the-rise-fall-and-revival-of-polaroid-the-instant-
photography-icon/