Friday, May 8, 2009

Why Film Will Last For A While

Many people envision that film will disappear completely at some point. While it is easy to see that it will dwindle for a long time, the final demise of film may not be in my lifetime.

Film is profitable. Look at Kodak's annual report. While film sales dropped, they were still the most profitable division, having a gross income of $196 million, while the digital group lost $177 MM.

The digital business model is much different that the film world. Digital cameras have a short product life and high R&D costs. A good film could last decades. Now that the capital costs for the film machinery has been long paid, the only cost for producing film is the variable cost. Thus it's profitability is higher.

Despite the advent of the 8-track tape, the cassette tape, the CD, and the MP3, vinyl is still around. It's enjoying a renessance.

No comments:

Post a Comment