The New York Times has published an interesting article which compares the recent upturn of Kodak and its digital camera/printer products with the company’s old Brownie camera:

“The reason people buy a Canon is not fundamentally ease of use, and the reason they buy Sony is not ease of use,” Mr. Schaeffer said. It was a position that resonated with the history of Kodak, which popularized the Instamatic camera, and long before that, the Brownie, which had the slogan “You push the button and we do the rest…

Kodak sold a million printer docks in the first year. Printers have the potential to be far more profitable than cameras, because customers are locked into years of buying ink and paper. Even more important, the printer dock helped Kodak’s cameras stand out in crowded electronics stores, as Kodak convinced many retailers to put its printers right in the aisle that sold cameras, not in the printer section.”

Website: The New York Times - Kodak Updates Its Brownie to Compete in a Digital Age