The shift to digital imaging was very well described even before it happened. This is illustrated through quotes by Robert Noyce, the co-founder of Intel.

1. Electronics and the
Camera Revolution

3. Since the rise of digital imaging,
photography has been popularized in a
way we could never have imagined.

4. Virtually
everyone can
own and use a
camera
nowadays.

5. The reason for this revolution seems to be the rapid
development of digital technology.

6. In this slideshow, I will illustrate
the effects digital technology has
had on the camera industry.

7. This is done by combining
quotes and (digital) images.

8. The quotes come from Robert C.
Noyce, the co-founder of Intel and
one of the persons who invented
the integrated circuit.

11. Back in 1977, he wrote an article called
‘Microelectronics’ which was published in
Scientific American.

12. The article is stunning – because those
words that were written more than 30
years ago are 100 percent applicable on
the digitalization of the camera industry.

13. Just take a look at the following quotes
and illustrations…

14. “The small size of
microelectronic
devices has been
important in many
applications but the
major impact of this
new technology has
been to make
electronic functions
more reproducible,
more reliable and
much less
expensive.”

16. “With each technical development costs have
decreased and the ever lower costs have promoted
a widening range of applications; the quest for
technical advances has been widely required by
economic competition and compensated by
economic reward.”

17. “Progress since then has been astonishing, even to
those of us who have been intimately engaged in the
evolving technology.”

18. “The most striking
characteristic of the
microelectronic
industry has been
the persistent and
rapid decline in the
cost of any
electronic function.”

20. “In this environment of rapid growth in market, rapid
technological change and high returns on the
successful development of new product or process,
a great number of entrepreneurial opportunities
have been created and exploited. “

21. “Time and time again the rapid growth of the market
has found existing companies too busy expanding
markets or product lines to which they were already
committed to explore some of the more speculative
new markets or technologies.”

22. (Instead of moving into digital imaging in the
mid 1990s, Polaroid launched the Barbie Cam,
thus expanding its existing product line as
Noyce stated 20 years earlier, without bearing
the camera industry in mind!)

23. (Polaroid is now resting in peace.)

24. (Kodak has demolished many of its
buildings in Rochester (NY) and went
from 140 000 employees in 1988 to
around 25 000 in 2008. Unlike Polaroid,
the company has survived so far.)

26. AgfaPhoto was
demolished.

27. “When the integrated circuit was still an
infant, Patrick E. Haggerty of Texas
Instruments called attention to the
increasing pervasiveness of electronics
and predicted that electronic
techniques would continue to displace
other modes of control, reaching into
nearly all aspects of our lives…

28. “… Just such a displacement
has been taking place...”
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
Number of film and digital cameras sold in the
United States (guess which one is digital…)

30. … primarily because the microelectronics industry
has been able to make ever more sophisticated
functional elements at ever decreasing costs.”

33. “Mechanical
elements of the
calculator and the
watch have been
displaced by the
integrated circuits
that are less
expensive and offer
more flexibility…

34. … Now the electromechanical functions of
vending machines, pinball machines and
traffic signals are being displaced.”

35. (… and later on the mechanics
in the camera industry…)

37. “It has often been said that just as the industrial
revolution enabled man to apply and control greater
physical power than his own muscle could provide,
so electronics has extended his intellectual power.”

39. The collapse of Polaroid, the rise of
mobile cameras, the popularization of
photography and the death of
established companies…

40. … All those stunning and surprising events in
recent years can be explained and
understood by reading an article from 1977!

41. Without even mentioning or thinking of the
camera industry, Noyce describes what has
happened, many decades before it has.

42. So how on earth is this possible?

43. The answer must be that Noyce truly
understood the nature of digital technology
and made a very accurate description of it.

44. When digital technology later on invaded the camera
industry, the same thing happened there as in those
industries Noyce had described.

45. This suggests that we can
understand both the history
and the future in a much better
way if we understand the
nature of digital technology.

46. Image attributions

47. Sources
Robert Noyce
Microelectronics
Scientific American
September 1977
Vol 237, No. 3.

48. Christian Sandström is a
PhD student at Chalmers
University of Technology in
Gothenburg, Sweden. He
writes and speaks about
disruptive innovation and
technological change.
www.christiansandstrom.org
christian.sandstrom@chalmers.se