polaroid polaview 3000 lcd panel manufacturer

Bring colorful electronic presentations to any meeting − large or small. Using a standard overhead projector, your computer slide shows, tutorials, and software demonstrations will be visible to the entire audience. The transparent LCD panel acts as a secondary display, and the projector shows the image on the projection screen.

The Electronic Imaging Systems division of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based instant phortography king Polaroid Corp has come out with a new line of liquid crystal diode display panels designed for making presentations. The company claims the panels can handle high quality, true colour images and video – they support most formats, including NTSC and PAL. The Polaview 3000, Polaview 1800 and Polaview 1500 panels are all Macintosh and Windows-compatible. They connect to both the personal computer and monitor, and sit on the overhead projector to produce exceptionally clear projected images, says the company. The panels include a wireless remote control, and weigh under 5 lbs. Prices range from UKP950 for an eight-shade black-and-white panel up to UKP5,250 for the multimedia version, with an active matrix liquid crystal colour screen and built-in speakers. They are available immediately, although the company says that they may be sold under another product name here in the UK.

with a native resolution of 1024x768 . The internal 3LCD technology is an innovative 3-chip design that sets itself apart by delivering vibrant, true-to-life images with better color brightness and a wider color gamut.

with a native resolution of 1024x768 . The internal 3LCD technology is an innovative 3-chip design that sets itself apart by delivering vibrant, true-to-life images with better color brightness and a wider color gamut.

Repair Manual Polaview 3000 LCD Panel September 1996 Americas Business Center Technical Services 201 Burlington Road Bedford MA 01730 TEL: 1.781.386.5309 FAX: 1.781.386.5988...

This section is about the company that pioneered instant film in the 20th century. For the company that currently produces Polaroid instant film and cameras, formerly known as Impossible Project, see Polaroid B.V. For other uses, see Polaroid (disambiguation).

Polaroid is an American company best known for its instant film and cameras. The company was founded in 1937 by Edwin H. Land, to exploit the use of its Polaroid polarizing polymer.

When the original Polaroid Corporation was declared bankrupt in 2001,Impossible Project, which had originally started out in 2008 by producing new instant films for Polaroid cameras.

The original Polaroid Corporation was founded in Cambridge, Massachusetts, by Edwin Land and George W. Wheelwright III in 1937.Apple of its time" with a "leader in Edwin Land, a scientist who guided the company as the founding CEO for four decades".polarized sunglasses — spawned from Land’s self-guided research in light polarization. Land, having completed his freshman year at Harvard University, left to pursue this market, resulting in Polaroid"s birth. Land later returned to Harvard to continue his research.military dogs.Kodak was a customer for some of Land"s polarizing products. Recognized by most as the father of instant photography, he included all the operations of a darkroom inside the film itself. Land was pictured on the cover of

When Kodak announced instant film cameras in 1976, Polaroid announced they were suing them, accusing Kodak of having stolen its patented instant photography process.

In 1977, Land introduced the Polaroid Instant Home Movie camera named Polavision, based on the Dufaycolor process. However, the product arrived on the market when videotape-based systems were rapidly gaining popularity. Thus it failed to sell well in retail stores and has been described as the swan song for Polaroid. After four decades as chairman, Edwin Land was coerced into resigning and leaving the corporation he had founded. He died in 1991. The Polavision debacle eventually caused the company to write off $89 million,Polachrome instant slide film system.

In the 1980s, Polaroid tried to reinvent itself without Land at its helm by shifting away from a dependence on consumer photography, a market which was in steady decline. In 1984 Polaroid announced "that it would enter the United States

Polaroid was forced to make wholesale changes that included having to fire thousands of workers and close many factories. The 1980s saw the advent of new technologies that profoundly changed the world of photography — one-hour color film processing, single-use cameras from competitors, videotape camcorders, and, in the 1990s and 2000s, digital cameras.

It also made 35 mm and multi format scanners, such as Polaroid SprintScan 4000 35 mm scannerNikon and Minolta products. The entire line was discontinued when Polaroid entered bankruptcy in 2001.

The original Polaroid Corporation filed for federal Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on October 11, 2001. The outcome was that within ten months, most of the business (including the "Polaroid" name itselfBank One"s One Equity Partners (OEP). OEP Imaging Corporation then changed its name to Polaroid Holding Company (PHC).

As part of the settlement, the original Polaroid Corporation changed its name to Primary PDC, Inc.unsecured creditorsbondholders).Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection,

Polaroid’s bankruptcy is widely attributed to the failure of senior management — unable to anticipate the impact of digital cameras on its film business.success trap.

After the bankruptcy, the Polaroid brand was licensed for use on other products with the assistance of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom. In September 2002, World Wide Licenses, a subsidiary of The Character Group plc, was granted the exclusive rights for three years to manufacture and sell digital cameras under the Polaroid brand for distribution internationally.LCDs and plasma televisions and portable DVD players had also appeared on the market.

On April 27, 2005, Petters Group Worldwide announced its acquisition of PHC. Petters has in the past bought up failed companies with well-known names for the value of those names. The same year, Flextronics purchased Polaroid"s manufacturing operations and the decision was made to send most of the manufacturing to China.Petters Group Worldwide, and the parent company founder, Tom Petters.

On April 2, 2009, Patriarch Partners won an auction for Polaroid Corporation"s assets including the company"s name, intellectual property, and photography collection. Patriarch"s $59.1 million bid beat bids from PHC Acquisitions, Hilco Consumer Capital Corp and Ritchie Capital.

The move by New York-based Patriarch, a private-equity firm, [to drop their claim], follows US District Judge James Rosenbaum"s ruling on Thursday in Minneapolis that putting the purchase on hold during appeal would threaten operations at Polaroid, which is spending its cash at a rate of $3 million a month.

On April 16, 2009, Polaroid won US Bankruptcy Court approval to be sold to a joint venture of Hilco Consumer Capital LP of Toronto and Gordon Brothers Brands LLC of Boston.

Hilco Consumer Capital and Gordon Brothers Brands announced the closing of the purchase of Polaroid Corporation on May 7, 2009, placing Polaroid Corporation in joint holding under a parent company named PLR IP Holdings, LLC. Former Executive Vice President and General Manager – Americas, Scott W. Hardy was named as the new President of Polaroid Corporation and PLR IP Holdings, LLC. The majority of employees remained in their positions at the company"s Minnetonka, Minnesota headquarters as well as office locations in Boston, New York and Toronto.

On June 19, 2009, the new holding corporation for Polaroid, PLR IP Holdings, LLC announced an exclusive 5-year agreement with Summit Global Group to produce and distribute Polaroid-branded digital still cameras, digital video cameras, digital photo frames and PoGo-branded mobile products. Summit Global Group added several former Polaroid employees to their staff. The company expects the agreement to yield $1.3 billion in retail sales over an unspecified period beginning in 2009.

In 2017, the holding corporation for Polaroid, PLR IP Holdings, LLC, was acquired by Polish investor Wiaczesław "Slava" Smołokowski.Impossible Project—a company formed to continue production of Polaroid-compatible film after Polaroid themselves left the market—having been persuaded to invest in it by his son Oskar.

The Impossible Project (already led by Oskar Smołokowski) was rebranded as Polaroid Originals, with the last factory producing Polaroid-compatible instant film cartridges in Enschede, Netherlands being rebranded under the new name later in 2017.

In March 2019, the new polaroid.com website listed instant cameras and supplies made by Polaroid Originals alongside its other products including digital cameras, sunglasses, the Cube action camera, and television units.

March 2020, Polaroid Originals rebranded as Polaroid, with the Polaroid Now being the first instant film camera in years to have the Polaroid branding.

Polaroid B.V. and other companies, including MiNT Camera (manufacturer of the reusable MiNT flash bar), refurbish and repair classic Polaroid products, with some companies modifying the hardware itself to add additional functionality.

In 1970, Caroline Hunter and her co-worker, future husband Ken Williams, discovered the involvement of their employer, Polaroid, in the South African apartheid system as the producer of the passbook photos used to identify Black individuals in South Africa. To pressure Polaroid to divest from South Africa, Hunter and Williams created the Polaroid Revolutionary Worker Movement (PRWM).South African government for use in the "passbook" in violation of Polaroid"s policy. This ended Polaroid"s relationship with its distributor and all direct sales to South Africa.

In 1985, Polaroid had its own brand of 5+1⁄4-inch floppy disks,data recovery service.The New York Times described it as a major brand.The New York Times listed it a notch lower in an almost reverse alphabetical list,

In the 1990s, Polaroid was involved in corporate sponsorship of NASCAR. For several years, Polaroid was the principal sponsor of NASCAR"s 125 mile Featherlite Modified race at Watkins Glen and it was called the "Polaroid 125". The Polaroid name was also used in sponsorship in the NASCAR Busch Series. In 1992, Polaroid was the principal sponsor of female NASCAR driver Shawna Robinson"s #25 Oldsmobile in the Busch Series. They continued as her principal sponsor when she moved to the other car numbers in 1993 and 1994.

Polaroid formerly sponsored the Target Chip GanassiNASCAR Sprint Cup Series and entries in the IRL Indy Car Series, including the car driven by Dario Franchitti.

The Polaroid name has also been associated with the NOPI drift series. Polaroid was the principal sponsor of the Nissan 350Z driven by Nick Bollea in the 2007 season.

On February 8, 2008, Polaroid (under the control of Thomas J. Petters of Petters Group Worldwide) announced that the company has decided to gradually cease production and withdraw from analog instant film products completely in 2008.Impossible Project, at the former Polaroid production plant in Enschede, Netherlands.

Austrian photographer Florian Kaps, the owner of the largest online vendor for SX-70 films and organizer of the web-based instant photo gallery Polanoid.net, had bought the approximately 500,000 film packages that were on stock. He teamed with André Bosman, a former head of film production in the large Polaroid film factory at Enschede, designed a plan to redesign the SX-70/600 film system in collaboration with Ilford Photo, and convinced the Polaroid owners to participate. Plans for a relaunch under the Impossible label were announced in January 2009.

Then Impossible had originally announced a new camera that was going to be styled after older Polaroid models to coincide with the new film. The camera was due to come out before Christmas 2010, but the deadline passed with no new information on the camera.OneStep with new features as originally planned, though the OneStep 2 uses the same type of film as the Impossible I-1 unlike the OneStep that used SX-70 Film.

On April 28, 2012, the documentary "Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film", directed by Grant Hamilton, was released in the U.S. It covers the rise, fall, and grass-roots revival of Polaroid"s instant film technology.

In summer 2008 Polaroid released the PoGo, an instant photo printer producing 2 by 3 inches (51 mm × 76 mm) prints. It uses the Zink ("zero ink") technology which is similar to dye sublimation but has the dye crystals embedded in the photo paper itself.

In 2011, the company released the Polaroid GL10 Instant Mobile Printer producing 3 by 4 inch prints.Lady Gaga, allows people to print directly from a mobile phone or digital camera.

In January 2012, Polaroid announced a new "smart camera", entitled the Polaroid SC1630 smart camera, which is powered by Google Android. The SC1630 is a combination of a camera and a portable media player, that allows users to take photos with a built-in 16 MP HD camera, download apps from Google Play, check their email, and browse the web. The built-in camera allows 3X optical zoom. Other features on the media player include Wi-Fi, touch screen, geotagging, smart albums, and 32 GB of storage via a micro SD card.

In September 2014 Polaroid introduced a $99 action camera named the "Polaroid Cube", marketed as an alternative to cameras such as the GoPro Hero (which retails for $129), specifically for casual, light users of action camcorders.GoPro released the similar GoPro HERO4 Session.

In March 2006, the specialist design and development department in Polaroid"s Vale of Leven plant in Scotland was bought out by its management team. Known as Wideblue the company specializes in helping small technology based companies develop products and manufacturing processes.

"Primary PDC Inc. (Front page)". Primary PDC Website. Archived from the original on 2008-01-18. Retrieved 2006-11-30. Substantially all of the assets of Polaroid Corporation were sold to OEP Imaging Operating Corporation (OEPI) on July 31, 2002. As part of the agreement, OEPI changed its name to Polaroid Corporation and the "former" Polaroid Corporation changed its name to Primary PDC, Inc. [which] operates under the protection of Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code and is responsible for [administration] related to the "former" Polaroid Corporation.

"Stockholders". Primary PDC Website. Archived from the original on 2008-01-18. Retrieved 2006-11-30. One Equity Partners, a division of Bank One in Chicago, purchased substantially all of the Polaroid business (including the company’s name) from the old Polaroid Corporation, which is now know [sic] as Primary PDC, Inc. [and] which continues to exist under the protection of chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

"Frequently Asked Questions". Primary PDC Website. Archived from the original on 2008-01-29. Retrieved 2016-06-24. On July 31, 2002, OEP Imaging Corporation (OEP) acquired substantially all the assets of Polaroid Corporation. OEP then changed its name to Polaroid Holding Company (New Polaroid) and Polaroid Corporation changed its name to Primary PDC, Inc. (Old Polaroid). [..] Old Polaroid no longer conducts commercial business and has no employees.

Deutsch, Claudia H. (2001-03-03). "G. W. Wheelwright III, 97, Dies; Co-Founder of Polaroid". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-08-13.

"Polaroid and One Equity Partners Complete Asset Acquisition" Archived May 31, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, New Polaroid Corporation. Press release dated 2002-07-31, Retrieved 2006-12-01.

O"Neill, Jerry "The New Polaroid: After Chapter 11" Archived June 11, 2016, at the Wayback Machine, "From the October 2002 Issue of Imaging Business" via imaginginfo.com. Article updated 2006-02-08, retrieved 2006-12-01.

"Industries Frantic To Find Polaroid Instant Film". Manufacturing.net. 2008-02-14. Archived from the original on October 11, 2011. Retrieved 2015-05-09.

Larson, Erik (2008-12-19). "Polaroid in Bankruptcy Again, Cites Petters Charges (Update3)". Bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on 2010-06-13. Retrieved 2015-05-09.

"Lady Gaga Named Creative Director for Polaroid Product Line". Impactpr.co.nz (Press release). ImpactPR. January 11, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-03-01. Retrieved 2014-02-25. PLR IP Holdings, LLC, owners of the Polaroid™ brand, today announced a multi-year strategic partnership with Lady Gaga, who will serve as creative director for a specialty line of Polaroid Imaging products.

Zhang, Michael (12 May 2017). "Polaroid Acquired by The Impossible Project"s Largest Shareholder". PetaPixel. Retrieved 2018-02-18. Polaroid’s brand and [IP] has been acquired by the largest shareholder of The Impossible Project [..] Now a single family has control of both the [Polaroid and Impossible] [..] [Owner of Polaroid..] brand and IP, PLR IP Holdings, LLC, was [sold to an] ownership group led by the Smolokowski family. [..] Wiacezlaw “Slava” Smolokowski acquired a 20% stake in The Impossible Project back [in 2012]. In 2014, [son Oskar became] CEO of The Impossible Project [..] The elder Smolokowski is now Impossible’s largest shareholder.

Morgan, Eric (29 February 2008). "The World is Watching: Polaroid and South Africa". Enterprise & Society. 7 (3): 520–549. doi:10.1093/es/khl002. SSRN 1096882. Retrieved 7 February 2021.

"Notification of Polaroid Instant Film Availability". Polaroid Corporation. 2008-02-18. Archived from the original on June 7, 2009. Retrieved 2009-06-20.

"Impossible relaunches Polaroid"s instant films, ends three years of speculations". British Journal of Photography. 2010-03-22. Archived from the original on March 25, 2010. Retrieved 2010-03-23.

"What is the difference between a CZA-10011, CZA-20011 and a PoGo Printer?". PLR Ecommerce. Archived from the original on January 17, 2014. Retrieved 12 February 2014. PoGo printer is the common name for the original Polaroid Instant Mobile printer which produces 2*3 instant prints. CZA-10011 and CZA-20011 are model numbers for the PoGo Printer and differ only in their packaging.

"Polaroid Announces the Sc1630 Smart Camera Powered by Android". Polaroid (Press release). Archived from the original on March 15, 2012. Retrieved March 3, 2012.

"The Polaroid genius who re-imagined the way we take photos" (video). Instant: The Story of Polaroid, author Christopher Bonanos compares the company"s dynamic founder, Edwin Land, with Apple"s iconic inventor, Steve Jobs. BBC News Online. 2013-01-23. Retrieved 2013-01-26.

Polaroid shutting 2 Mass. facilities, laying off 150, The Boston Globe, 2008-02-08, history and future of the company after ceasing its manufacturing of instant film technology.

Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement at the African Activist Archive Project – Material associated with protests against Polaroid"s association with apartheid-era South Africa

Remote controls allow television viewers to control every aspect of their viewing experience from anywhere in a room. Polaroid makes specific remote controls for its own televisions and devices, and universal remotes for devices manufactured by other companies.How do you program a Polaroid TV remote control?

Typically, a universal Polaroid TV control can be used with up to four devices at a time. To sync a device with the remote, follow these steps:Turn off the TV you want the remote control to operate. Keep other synced devices turned off while programming the remote.

While pointing at the TV screen with it, press the Power button on the remote. If the device turns on, it means the code was correct and the remote has been programmed. If it does not, repeat the process using the next code on the list.How do you activate and deactivate SAP on Polaroid TV?

Secondary audio programming (SAP) is a feature that Polaroid televisions have. This feature provides a secondary audio stream that allows viewers to listen to a program in a language other than the original. By deactivating the SAP feature, you can go back to listening to the program in its original language. To accomplish this, follow these steps:Press the Power button to turn on your TV.

Select the SAP option. Note that with some television models, this option may be labeled MS. To activate SAP, use the remote control to change the setting from ON to OFF. To deactivate SAP, change the setting from OFF to ON.How do you change batteries in your Polaroid TV remote?

Once you have used up all the charge in the batteries of your Polaroid TV remote control, it is time to replace them with a fresh set. You can do this by following these steps:Open the battery compartment of the remote control by pushing the cover away from the main body of the device.

Note that the remote control will reset itself whenever its batteries are removed. As a result, you will have to enter the appropriate codes once again to program the device.Content provided for informational purposes only. eBay is not affiliated with or endorsed by Polaroid.

The camera is slim, just wide enough to contain the film cassette. It is small, with an oversized handle containing four “AA” alkaline batteries. Its shape is remarkably like the lower‐priced Fuji single‐8mm movie camera. The “viewer” is just what its name implies—it looks and performs like a small TV set with a 12‐inch screen. At this stage, there is no other way to show the Polaroid films.

Dr. land and his chief executive, William J. McCune, president of Polaroid (Dr. Land is chairman of the board and director of research), emphasized that Polaroid"s initial venture into the instant‐movie field is for the mass market. “We could have added more features in both camera and viewer,” Dr. Land said. “Our interest at this time is in the average user. Subsequent models will contain additional elements such as a faster lens for low light filming, power and sound.”

The first Polaroid instant movie is a silent camera. Its film, however, is magnetically sound striped. Dr. Land explained. “In the near future, perhaps a year or two, when the new system is over its teething problems, we will add sound in subsequent models. By tooling up initially for sound, we save the cost of retooling later.”

Dr. Land said the sound version of his instant movie camera would perhaps be somewhat larger, as will the sound‐film cassette. “In the camera, we will have to add a solid state, miniaturized sound recording unit, with provision for a microphone.” He emphasized this has not been settled as yet. “No design has been frozen in this sector. We shall remain pliable to the last moment. If we can, both cassette and camera will stay the same size.” Polaroid is also testing the possibility of longer film capacity, perhaps double the present film load. “With sound, this would be an advantage,” he said. Film size of the new Polaroid instantfilm process is Super‐8. It is wholly contained in the cassette. Both Dr. Land and McCune emphasized the reasons are twofold: (1) For uniform developing/fixing process and (2) for customer ease of operation. The cassette slips into its slot on top of the viewer and is instantly ready for viewing. It is necessary only to connect the viewer to the house current,” Dr. Land said.

I cant give any specific comments on it cause I ain"t got my OHp yet, but will let you know how I get on. I always make sure, for waht I buy from now, that an item has all of its original accesories. I got my polaview 3000 for £115, about $170, but got the case, manual, remote, vga cable, mouse cable and power supply.

In 1926, Polaroid"s founder, Edwin H. Land, left Harvard University after his freshman year to conduct research on light polarization. In 1928, he invented the first synthetic sheet polarizer and filed for a patent in 1929. Its possible uses include photographic filters, sunglasses, and glare-reducing windows for planes.

Land forms Polaroid Corporation in 1937 and begins to develop a variety of products from the polarizer technology. Polaroid day glasses are introduced. Polaroid desk lamp is developed. The lamp includes a polarizer which reduces glare. Net sales: $141,935. Employees: 36.

Company products include a redesigned desk lamp, Polaroid glasses, ski goggles, flat lens day glasses, curved-lens fit-ons and face forms, stereoscopic motion picture viewers and a new polarizer developed to reduce headlight glare on cars. The company produces aviation, fog-free and dark-adaptor goggles for the Army and Navy. Polaroid receives a $7 million contract to develop heat-seeking missiles equipped with miniature computers. Polaroid moves its offices from Boston to Cambridge. William J. McCune, future chairman and CEO, joins Polaroid to start up a quality control operation.

On Nov. 26, 1948, Polaroid introduces the Model 95 Land Camera and Type 40 sepia-toned instant roll film at Jordan Marsh department store (now Macy"s), in Boston. The camera sells for $89.50 and features a three-element 135mm f/11 lens and shutter speeds from 1/8 to 1/60 of a second. Net sales: $2,481,372. Net loss: ($865,255).

TV advertising begins on the Dave Garroway show -- live. Model 110 Land camera, the Pathfinder, is introduced for professionals. Polaroid 3-D glasses used to view the first 3-D stereoscopic movie, Bwana Devil. First dividends issued on common stock.

Land appointed head of the Intelligence Section of President Eisenhower"s Technological Capabilities Panel. The most well-known concept from the Intelligence Section"s report is the U-2 air reconnaissance system.

Polaroid listed on the New York Stock Exchange. New cameras: Model 80A, Model 95B, Model 150, Model 800 and the Model 110A. Black and white ASA 1000 transparency films are introduced in two sizes.

New film speed: Type 47 B&W; roll film, ASA3000. First international subsidiaries -- Germany and Canada. Net sales $89.9 million. Net earnings: $10.7 million. Employees: 2,505.

Polaroid U.K. Ltd. formed. Polaroid MP-3 Land camera introduced -- a copystand camera with macro- and microphotography capabilities for use in research labs, hospitals, universities and industry.

Film production begins in the U.K. More European subsidiaries formed. Ali McGraw appears in the award-winning advertising campaign for the $19.95 Swinger camera. Polaroid sponsors new public television show, The French Chef, with Julia Child. Net sales: $204 million. Net earnings: $29 million. Employees 4,987.

The Polaroid SX-70 Land camera is introduced -- the first fully automatic, motorized, folding, single lens reflex camera which ejects self-developing, self-timing instant color prints. Sir Lawrence Olivier appears as spokesman in advertising for the SX-70. A film introducing the camera and film technology is produced by designer Charles Eames, with script by Dr. Philip Morrison, Professor of Physics and MIT and music by Elmer Bernstein. Land and the SX-70 camera are featured on the cover of Life Magazine.

Mariette Hartley and James Garner star in TV and print ads. The OneStep becomes the best-selling camera in the United States -- instant or conventional -- for more than four years. The 20x24-inch camera is introduced. Polaroid stops shipments of product to South Africa and becomes the first U.S. company to pull out of South Africa completely. Land is awarded his 500th patent.

Garner-Hartley commercials continue, this time introducing the Sun System, which automatically mixes strobe light and ambient light for best exposure. Type 600 high-speed color film is introduced for the new line of cameras. New products for professional and technical applications: an 8x10 film processor, Type 891 8x10 color film, and Type 612 film, an instant black and white film (ASA 20,000) for high-speed oscilloscope photography and photo instrumentation. Booth becomes chief operating officer. Polaroid initiates a voluntary severance program designed to reduce employment costs and improve productivity -- population decreases by about 11 percent.

New products: 35mm Autoprocess System, which produces rapid-access color or B&W; transparencies; Polaroid Palette, a desktop computer image recorder that produces color 35mm slides or Polaroid instant prints; the CR-10, a direct-screen instant CRT camera that produces B&W; photos directly from CRT displays; Sun 600 LMS and the OneStep 600 cameras for consumer use. Polaroid blank videocassettes are introduced in Europe and will launch in the U.S. in 1984. I.M. (Mac) Booth is elected president, succeeding Bill McCune, who continues as chairman and CEO.

Spectra camera introduced,a new, larger-format film. FreezeFrame Video Recorder is developed jointly by Polaroid and Toshiba. Federal appeals court upholds a 1985 decision by district court, ruling that Eastman Kodak violated Polaroid patent rights in its manufacture of instant cameras and film.

Polaroid celebrates 50th anniversary. Activities include: Project Bridge to combat a nationwide shortage of math and science teachers; Legacy of Light book and exhibit; "gift of photography" program for community and festival at Boston College football stadium featuring entertainment by Steve Allen, Mariette Hartley and the Pointer Sisters.

Product introductions: Impulse and CoolCam; Bravo! overhead projectors and Slide Maker; Miniportrait 403; ID2000: mercury-free PolaPulse battery for integral films. Polaroid begins manufacturing in Mexico and China. ESOP established; holds about 20% of company stock; funded by employee pay and benefits. First non-officer employee member, Marian J. Stanley appointed to Polaroid board of directors. Shamrock Holdings, Inc. begins attempted hostile takeover.

Billionth pack of instant film produced. Product introductions: Jewelry Pro II camera; 600 Business Edition camera; New Spectra High Definition film; Digital Palette CI-5000 film recorder; Digital Scanner CS-5000; Digital PhotoPrinter CI-700; Helios Model 810 medical imaging system. Worldwide sales reach $2 billion. BillMcCune, chairman, retires. Mac Booth named chairman. Edwin H. Land, Polaroid"s founder, dies at 81. Suit with Eastman Kodak settled; Kodak pays Polaroid $925 million.

Captiva camera unveiled at Shareholders" Meeting; introduced at Photokina as Vision. Will be marketed in the U.S. and Japan in 1993. Polaroid awarded Mexico voter ID program. Employees" Committee disbanded after 43 years.

Gary T. DiCamillo, the first "outsider" to head the company, joins Polaroid in October 1995, succeeding retiring chairman and CEO Mac Booth. Product introductions: OneStep Autofocus camera; Talking OneStep camera; PhotoPad digital scanner; Macro 5 SLR Close-up instant camera; Polaview 105 LCD projector; Dry Tech Imagesetting film, a digital color separation film; DryJet Color Proofing System.

Polaroid strategy focuses on becoming a new products company. More than 25 new products introduced, e.g., DryJet II Advanced Digital Color Proofing System; 900 series 35mm cameras; PopShots instant single-use film and camera system; Tomy Xiao Pocket Camera (in Japan); PDC 640 digital camera with PhotoMAX software, Studio Polaroid 350. Net sales: $1.8 billion. Net loss: $51 million. Employees: 9,274.

Focus is on core business, having exited or rationalized non-core businesses over the last few years. 9.7 million instant cameras sold, a company record. More than 400,000 digital cameras sold, making Polaroid the number-one digital camera seller in the U.S. mass-merchandising channel. Broad introduction of Polaroid I-Zone Instant Pocket Camera, JoyCam and PopShots in the U.S. Balance sheet strengthens, revenues up 7 percent vs. 1998. Net sales: $1.9 billion. Net earnings: $9 million. Employees: 8,784.

Polaroid Corporation files for federal bankruptcy protection on October 11, 2001, and most of the business was thereafter carried on by the Polaroid Holding Company (PHC), managed by Bank One. Significant criticism surrounded this takeover because the process left executives of the company with large bonuses, while stockholders, as well as current and retired employees, were left with nothing. Polaroid"s bankruptcy was widely believed to be the result of the failure of its senior management to see the effect of digital cameras on its film business, a fate that also befell its primary rival, Kodak. Since the bankruptcy Polaroid branded LCD and Plasma televisions and portable DVD players have appeared on the market.

On April 27, 2005, Petters Group Worldwide announced its acquisition of PHC. Petters has in the past bought up failed companies with well-known names for the value of those names. The same year, Flextronics purchased Polaroid"s manufacturing operations and the decision was made to send most of the manufacturing to China. In January 2009 Polaroid introduced the digital instant camera PoGo TWO, a variant of Polaroid"s innovative portable PoGo photo printer with built-in digicam. The very compact PoGo printers use special Zink paper for ink-free printing.

In March 2009, following bankruptcy proceedings, the Polaroid brandname was sold once more. At the time, no film was being manufactured under the famous name, but various projects are being undertaken by people wishing to revive the Polaroid format, such as the Impossible Project who currently produce SX70, Spectra, 600 and 8x10 film.

On April 2, 2009, Patriarch Partners won an auction for Polaroid Corporation"s assets including the company"s name, intellectual property, and photography collection. Patriarch"s $59.1 million bid beat bids from PHC Acquisitions, Hilco Consumer Capital Corp and Ritchie Capital.

On April 16, 2009, Polaroid won US Bankruptcy Court approval to be sold to a joint venture of Hilco Consumer Capital LP of Toronto and Gordon Brothers Brands LLC of Boston. Hilco Consumer Capital and Gordon Brothers Brands announced the closing of the purchase of Polaroid Corporation on May 7, 2009, placing Polaroid Corporation in joint holding under a parent company named PLR IP Holdings, LLC. Former Executive Vice President and General Manager – Americas, Scott W. Hardy was named as the new President of Polaroid Corporation and PLR IP Holdings, LLC. The majority of employees remained in their positions at the company"s Minnetonka, Minnesota headquarters as well as office locations in Boston, New York and Toronto.

On June 19, 2009, the new holding corporation for Polaroid, PLR IP Holdings, LLC announced an exclusive 5-year agreement with Summit Global Group to produce and distribute Polaroid-branded digital still cameras, digital video cameras, digital photo frames and PoGo-branded mobile products. Summit Global Group added several former Polaroid employees to their staff. The company expects the agreement to yield $1.3 billion in retail sales over an unspecified period beginning in 2009.

On January 5, 2010, Polaroid appointed Lady Gaga as "Creative Director" for the company. A press release stated that she would be the "new face" of Polaroid.

In May 2017, the brand and intellectual property of the Polaroid corporation, holding corporation for Polaroid, PLR IP Holdings, LLC, were acquired by the largest shareholder of the Impossible Project, the Polish investor Oskar Smołokowski, which had originally started out in 2008 by producing new instant films for Polaroid cameras.

The last factory producing Polaroid instant picture film cartridges in Enschede, Netherlands, under the trademark “Impossible” (The Impossible Project), which had already been led by Smołokowski as CEO, was rebranded to Polaroid Originals later in September 2017.

We are reinventing Polaroid and the way we approach customers, while at the same time digital technology is enabling new ways to create and use images.

Polaroid Corporation, founded on Edwin H. Land"s belief that consumer markets should be created around inventions generated by scientific research, is a world leader in instant photography. The company manufactures and sells more than 50 types of film and more than 100 cameras and instant camera accessories. Instant photography products, since their 1948 debut, have consistently provided the bulk of Polaroid"s income. Other operations, which the company announced in early 1999 that it may jettison, include sunglasses, graphic arts, glare-reducing polarizers, and holography.

Photography giant Eastman Kodak provided the company"s first financial break when it made a $10,000 order for photographic polarizing filters, later dubbed Polafilters. These plates, which consisted of a sheet of polarizing material sealed between two glass discs, increased contrast and decreased glare in photographs taken in bright light. Land-Wheelwright accepted the order and delivered the filters to Kodak. By this time, a friend, Professor Clarence Kennedy of Smith College, had dubbed the material "Polaroid," and the name was adopted. In 1935 Land negotiated with American Optical Company to produce polarized sunglasses. Such glasses could screen out glare rather than simply darken the landscape, and Land-Wheelwright contracted to begin production of Polaroid Day Glasses, a longtime source of revenue for Polaroid.

In 1937 Land formed Polaroid Corporation to acquire the operations that he and George Wheelwright had begun. Eight original shareholders fronted $375,000 to back Land and his projects. They invested in Land and his ideas, allotting him a voting trust of stock that gave him control of the company for the next decade. Wheelwright left the company in 1940 to become a navy lieutenant and never rejoined the company. Researchers had devised a number of commercial applications for Polaroid polarizing sheets--such as desk lamps, variable-density windows, lenses, and three-dimensional photographs called Vectographs--but most of these products never became significantly profitable.

Polaroid continued to court the major automakers, attempting to induce one of them to demonstrate its headlight system at the 1939 New York World"s Fair. The carmakers all refused the project, but Chrysler agreed to run a Polaroid three-dimensional (3-D) movie at its display. Audiences dodged water that seemed to spray out of a garden hose into the crowd and gawked through Polaroid-made glasses of oppositely polarized lenses as an automobile appeared to dance itself together in the air above them. The public loved 3-D, but filmmakers were content with the magic of color and sound, and passed over the new technology.

In 1939 Day Glasses were the source of most of Polaroid"s $35,000 profit. Although sales rose to $1 million in 1941, the company"s 1940 losses had reached $100,000, and it was only World War II military contracts that saved Land and his 240 employees. By 1942 the wartime economy had tripled Polaroid"s size. A $7 million navy contract to work on the Dove heat-seeking missile project was the largest contract Polaroid had ever had, though the bomb was not used during World War II. Polaroid produced a number of other products for the Armed Forces, including a device that determined an aircraft"s elevation above the horizon, an infrared night viewing device, goggles, lenses, color filters for periscopes, and range finders.

Also during the war, the 3-D technology was employed in a machine-gunner training unit. Polaroid designed a trainer in which the student operated a life-size antiaircraft gun against the 3-D simulation of an attacking plane. Reconnaissance planes were equipped to take 3-D Vectographs, which provided relief maps of enemy territory. When viewed with polarized glasses, the 3-D pictures exposed contours of guns, planes, and buildings that camouflage obscured in conventional photographs. Vectographs were used in planning almost all Allied invasions, including that of Normandy. By the end of the war, in 1945, Polaroid"s sales had reached $16 million. But as military contracts declined, so did staff, and Polaroid was down to about 900 employees, from a wartime high of 1,250. Sales fell to just $4 million in 1946 and were less than $2 million in 1947.

By 1946 Land had realized that Polaroid Corporation was in deep trouble. Land also had come to believe that instant photography was Polaroid"s only research line with potential to save the company. Land had first considered developing instant photography technology in 1943, when, on Christmas day, his three-year-old daughter asked to see the photographs her parents had taken earlier that day. Prompted by his daughter"s query, Land conceived, in a flash, an instant, self-developing film and a camera that would process it. By 1946, however, the research on the film was far from complete. Nonetheless, Land announced early that year that the instant camera system would be demonstrated at the February 21, 1947 winter meeting of the Optical Society of America. Working around the clock, Polaroid scientists developed a working model of the system, which allowed Land to take an instant picture of himself at the Optical Society meeting. The photograph developed itself within a minute. The image of Land peeling back the negative paper from an instantly produced picture of himself made front page news in theNew York Times, was given a full page inLife magazine, and was splashed across the international press.

It was an additional nine months before the camera was offered to the public via Jordan Marsh, Boston"s oldest department store. The original camera, which weighed five pounds when loaded, sold for $89.75; film cost $1.75 for eight sepia-toned exposures. On the first day the camera was offered, demonstrators sold all 56 of the available units, and the cameras kept selling as fast as the factory could produce them. First-year photographic sales exceeded $5 million. By 1950 more than 4,000 dealers sold Polaroid cameras, when only a year earlier Kodak had virtually monopolized the U.S. photography market.

The 1950s were a decade of rapid expansion. Sales mounted, spurred on by an aggressive television advertising campaign. Instant photography could be demonstrated graphically on television. Black-and-white film was introduced in 1950 to an enthusiastic public. Enthusiasm quickly turned to ire, however, as the black-and-white images began to fade and disappear. Unable to develop a nonfading black-and-white film, Polaroid provided sponge-tipped tubes of a liquid polymer, which the consumers hand applied to each picture to set the image. This awkward process was not eliminated until 1963.

Despite the inconvenience, demand for instant photography held. To accommodate growing sales, Polaroid built a plant in Waltham, Massachusetts. The company"s common stock was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1957. Polaroid formed its first international subsidiaries in 1959, in Frankfurt and Toronto. In 1960 it established Nippon Polaroid Kabushiki Kaisha in Japan and licensed a Japanese firm to produce two cameras for overseas sale.

During the 1960s Polaroid continued to offer improvements and variations on the original instant film and camera, though other products were also introduced. Polaroid"s first color film was introduced in 1963, along with a pack-loading black-and-white film. In 1965 the inexpensive Swinger was pitched to teens. Selling for less than $20, the camera took only black-and-white pictures, sustaining the market for Polaroid black-and-white film. In 1966 the ID-2 Land Identification system was introduced. It produced full-color laminated cards in two minutes, allowing the company to provide instant driver"s licenses and other photo identification cards. In 1967 Polaroid began construction on several new factories to boost production of cameras, film, color negatives, and chemicals. The company"s stock split two for one in 1968. During the late 1960s Polaroid was outpacing other top stock market performers. In 1970 sales reached $500 million.

In October 1970 two black workers at Polaroid called upon other black employees to leave their jobs until Polaroid ceased all business in South Africa. Polaroid had no subsidiaries or investments in the country, but its products were distributed through Frank & Hirsch and some items were sold directly to the government. South African commerce accounted for less than 0.1 percent of the company"s annual profits. Polaroid sent two black and two white employees to South Africa to assess the situation, and in 1971 the company decided to stop selling its products to the South African government. In addition, black workers at Frank & Hirsch would receive equal pay for equal work and be educated for promotion. Polaroid established a foundation to subsidize black education in South Africa, and made $25,000 in contributions to black cultural associations. Polaroid ended its association with Frank & Hirsch in 1977.

In 1972 the October cover ofLife magazine featured a cluster of children grasping after a photograph whizzing out of the new SX-70 wielded by inventor Land. The SX-70 was the first integrated camera and film system, and the pictures developed outside the camera by themselves. The public eagerly purchased the camera. Despite the fact that sales in the early 1970s continued to grow at a rate of 20 percent per year, the tremendous expense of research, manufacturing, and marketing for the SX-70 caused earnings to fall. Financial analysts began to question Polaroid"s stability. In 1974 Polaroid executives admitted that the company did not expect to make more than $3 a share that year. Actually, earnings were only 86 cents per share. Polaroid stock plummeted. By July 1974, just 26 months after the SX-70 was introduced, the stock had fallen from $149 to $14.

In 1975 Land turned the presidency of Polaroid over to Bill McCune, a senior vice-president who had been with the company since 1939 and had worked closely with Land on the development of the first instant camera and film. Manufacture of the SX-70 remained very costly, and numerous design features required modification. Yet Land was satisfied with the camera and wished to pursue research on Polavision, an instant motion picture system. McCune and others, however, favored improving the SX-70. Highly skeptical of Polavision, McCune wanted to base new product lines on market research, rather than following Land"s method of creating a consumer demand for Polaroid"s latest invention. Land introduced Polavision at the 1977 annual meeting, and a limited introduction followed. Although a scientific marvel, the instant films lasted only two and a half minutes and were silent. Videotaping was just hitting the market, and so Polavision was never a consumer success.

Land received his 500th patent and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1977. Polaroid"s corporate culture began to shift when McCune was voted chief executive officer in 1980. While Land"s entrepreneurial drive had created the company, a more diversified, market-oriented management was needed to continue to propel it. In 1982 Land retired fully, devoting his attention to research at the Rowland Institute for Science, which he had founded in 1965.

In 1976 Polaroid entered a costly and lengthy patent-infringement battle with Eastman Kodak Company. Kodak had been producing the negative component of Polaroid"s black-and-white film since 1944, and its color negative since 1957. With the introduction of the Polaroid SX-70, though, Kodak terminated its partnership with Polaroid, and began its own instant-photography research. In 1976 Kodak introduced the EK-4 and EK-6 instant cameras and PR-10 instant film. Polaroid filed suit within a week, charging 12 patent infringements in camera film and design.

Legal preparations dragged on for five years, until the trial began in October 1981. Ten of the 12 original counts were pressed. After 75 days of testimony and three years of deliberation, U.S. District Court Judge Rya Zobel ruled that seven of the ten Polaroid patents were valid and had been infringed upon. As a result, Kodak"s line of instant-photography products was terminated in 1986. When settlement talks began, Polaroid claimed about $6.1 billion in damages, lost sales, and interest. The case was not settled until 1991 and resulted in a payment by Eastman Kodak of $925 million.

In August 1988 Shamrock Holdings offered to buy Polaroid at $40 a share plus 40 percent of the award from the Kodak settlement. Polaroid"s board of directors rejected the offer, and soon after, the company sold 14 percent of its outstanding shares to an employee stock ownership program (ESOP). Shamrock charged that the ESOP was a form of management entrenchment, and sued. Delaware courts upheld Polaroid"s position, and Shamrock raised its offer to $45 a share. Polaroid"s board again rejected the offer and subsequently announced a $1.1 billion common stock buyback. Shamrock again sued Polaroid in February 1989 for management entrenchment, but Polaroid"s tactics were again upheld. The fight against Shamrock was led by Chairman McCune and I. MacAllister Booth, who had become president in 1983 and CEO in 1985. The pair pruned Polaroid staff in the early 1980s and reorganized the company into three divisions: consumer photography, industrial photography, and magnetic media.

The first success reaped from this new marketing strategy was the Spectra, introduced in 1986. The upscale Spectra came out of market research indicating that instant camera users wanted better picture quality. Again responding to this desire, Polaroid introduced Hybrid IV, an instant film of near 35-millimeter quality, during the early 1990s. Polaroid also introduced a line of conventional film and videotapes starting in 1989. Marketing strategies also continued to become more sophisticated. In 1990 a $60 million advertising campaign emphasized new uses for instant cameras. Suggested uses included recording household items for insurance purposes or keeping a visual record of properties when househunting. In addition, the company cultivated its nonconsumer markets, which contributed at least 40 percent of photographic sales.

While Polaroid"s product lines became more fully guided by market demand, Polaroid continued to be a research-and-development-driven company. By the early 1990s, the company had become the world market leader in instant photography and electronic imaging, and a major world manufacturer and marketer of conventional films, videotapes, and light polarizing filters and lenses. In addition to its instant photography products, Polaroid had by the early 1990s developed a presence in the medical imaging field, with such products as the 1993-released Helios medical laser imaging system, which produced a medical diagnostic image without chemical processing, and the Polaroid EMS Photo Kit, a camera specifically designed for the 35,000 emergency medical team (EMT) squads in the United States. A series of electronic imaging products were also developed for the business segment, including desktop computer film recorders, the Polaroid CI-5000 and CI-3000, and the CS-500i Digital Photo Scanner. In addition, Polaroid developed the ProCam, an instant camera earmarked for the business customer.

In the mid-to-late 1990s Polaroid faced an increasingly uncertain future. Overall sales were stagnant--the $2.15 billion figure of 1992 being repeated in 1997, before a more dismal result was announced for 1998: $1.89 billion. Demand for instant film was on the decline, in part because of the rapid growth of one-hour photo shops for conventional film, and the company"s other forays were less than total successes. The Captiva had a very strong debut, but then sales dropped off and Polaroid cut back production. Booth retired in late 1995 and was replaced as chairman and CEO by Gary T. DiCamillo, who had been an executive at the Black & Decker Corporation, where he earned a reputation for cost-cutting, improving productivity, and rapidly developing new products. Soon after taking over, DiCamillo initiated a restructuring at Polaroid, which included a workforce cut of about 15 percent, or 1,570 jobs, and a charge of $247 million for 1995, leading to a net loss of $140.2 million for the year. DiCamillo also overhauled the company"s management team, bringing in additional marketing and product development-oriented leaders from such firms as RJR Nabisco and Kraft Foods.

Further changes came in 1996 when Polaroid largely abandoned its venture into medical imaging, an area in which it had invested about $800 million, when it sold the bulk of its loss-making Helios unit to Sterling Diagnostic Imaging Inc. This sale led in part to a $33 million charge recorded in 1996, a year in which the company reported a net loss of $41.1 million.

The new management team at Polaroid concentrated on rolling out 30 to 40 new products each year, aiming to diversify the company"s offerings. These included a disposable flashlight, alkaline batteries, and a new line of polarized sunglasses. In December 1997, meanwhile, Polaroid announced an additional workforce reduction of 15 percent, or about 1,500 jobs. The company took another restructuring charge of $323.5 million, resulting in a 1997 net loss of $126.7 million. During 1998 Polaroid announced additional job cuts of 600 to 700 employees, took a restructuring charge of $50 million, and posted a net loss of $51 million. The worldwide economic difficulties that began in 1997 proved particularly troublesome for Polaroid, which had long generated a significant portion of its revenue outside the United States. The hardest hit market for Polaroid was Russia, which had been the company"s second largest market in 1995, accounting for $200 million in revenues; for 1998 Polaroid sold only about $25 million worth of goods in that economically troubled nation.

As Polaroid"s red ink continued to flow, speculation about a possible takeover was rife. In addition, while DiCamillo had initially emphasized broadening the company"s product mix when he came on board, he announced in early 1999 that he was considering selling four business units--sunglasses, graphic arts, glare-reducing polarizers, and holography--that had been key components of his diversification efforts. DiCamillo said that he wanted to focus the company on its core instant photography business. The emphasis would also be on the consumer market, with particular attention given to developing youth-oriented instant cameras, such as the I-Zone Instant Pocket Camera, which was a slender camera that produced miniature instant prints. The Pocket Camera had been a great success following its May 1998 debut in the Osaka region of Japan, and would be released in the United States in the summer of 1999. Other products the company was banking its future on included PopShots, the first instant one-time-use camera; and the JoyCam, a smaller, economically priced version of Polaroid"s standard instant camera. The company was also attempting to win the race to develop the first digital camera with an instant print. But the larger question that especially clouded Polaroid"s future was whether instant photography was becoming technologically obsolete.

Principal Subsidiaries: Polaroid A.G. (Switzerland); Polaroid A/S (Denmark); Polaroid Asia Pacific International Inc.; Polaroid Asia Pacific Limited; Polaroid Aktiebolag (Sweden); Polaroid Australia Pty. Limited; Polaroid do Brasil Ltda. (Brazil); Polaroid Canada Inc.; Polaroid Caribbean Corporation; Polaroid Contracting CV (Netherlands); Polaroid Espana, S.A. (Spain); Polaroid Europe Limited (U.K.); Polaroid Far East Limited (Hong Kong); Polaroid Foreign Sales B.V. (Netherlands); Polaroid Foundation; Polaroid Gesellschaft mit beschrankter Haftung (Germany); Polaroid Gesellschaft m.b.H. (Austria); Polaroid India Private Limited; Polaroid International B.V. (Netherlands); Nippon Polaroid Kabushiki Kaisha (Japan); Polaroid Malaysia Limited; Polaroid de Mexico S.A. de C.V.; Polaroid (Norge) A/S (Norway); Polaroid Oy (Finland); Polaroid Singapore Private Limited; Polaroid (U.K.) Limited; Polaroid Memorial Drive LLC; Polaroid Partners, Inc.; Inner City, Inc.; PMC, Inc.; Polint, Inc.; PRD Capital Inc.; PRD Investment Inc.; PRD Management Limited (Bermuda); PRD Overseas Limited (Bermuda); Sub Debt Partners Corp.; Troon, Inc.

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Polaroid Corporation, manufacturer of one of the premiere brands of cameras for more than 50 years, faced a crisis in the 1990s as the rise of new technologies, in particular digital cameras, negated the company"s edge in the instant delivery of prints. After putting its account in review in 2000, Polaroid selected a new advertising agency, Leo Burnett Worldwide, to help rekindle the brand"s sagging fortunes. The focus over the next three years was on taking advantage of the successful launch of the small I-Zone and JoyCam cameras and the small adhesive-backed "sticky film" they used. The company"s target was teens, in particular 15- to 17-year-old girls.

Because the marketers were playing to an audience that normally rejected typical hard-sell appeals, they attempted to be innovative and engaging while subtly urging teens in both television spots and print ads to buy the cameras and apply the "sticky pics" to whatever surface struck their fancy. For example, one television spot featured a young woman jumping up and down on her bed, slapping Polaroid pictures on the ceiling. A print effort included an insert of pictures that could be applied as a form of commentary to an accompanying fake advertisement, and teens were encouraged to "hijack" real ads with their own sticky pics.

Over the course of three years Leo Burnett succeeded in many ways. Much of the work received industry awards, and Polaroid enjoyed sales spikes. The added revenue did not, however, stave off bankruptcy for the company, which never approached spending the $150 million the account was worth when Leo Burnett took over. Instead it was estimated that Polaroid, short on cash, spent only about $70 million a year. When the account was again put up for review in 2003, Leo Burnett opted not to participate, leaving the task of rebuilding one of the great brands in American history to others.

Polaroid Corporation grew out of the polarization research conducted by Edwin Land beginning in the 1920s. After developing a polarizing material he struggled to find a commercial application, initially finding success with the sale of sunglasses. On Christmas Day 1943, in a flash of inspiration, Land conceived of a camera and self-developing film utilizing his polarizing material. With Polaroid on the verge of financial ruin by 1946, Land placed all his hopes on the development of his instant camera. It was introduced into the market a year later with a great deal of fanfare and was an immediate hit.

During the 1950s the company grew rapidly and became a marketing success story. In the camera industry Polaroid played Pepsi to Kodak"s Coca-Cola. Much of Polaroid"s success was due to its creative approach to advertising. It was quick to take advantage of the rising popularity of television, enlisting early stars of the medium, like Tonight Show hosts Steve Allen and Jack Paar, to demonstrate Polaroid cameras in live television commercials. According to Stuart Elliott, writing for the

The proliferation of one-hour photography developing shops and the increasing popularity of digital photography dramatically changed the landscape for Polaroid during the 1990s. To counteract declining revenues in its core instant film business, Polaroid cut costs while attempting to diversify into such areas as medical imaging (a major failure), flashlights and batteries, and graphic arts. By the end of the decade, however, Polaroid decided to once again turn to the consumer market, this time focusing on a younger demographic market with the I-Zone Instant Pocket Camera, a slim cam