Airline Industry

INDUSTRY BACKGROUND AND OVERVIEW

Industry: Digital Cameras (Photography)

The digital camera industry is, without a doubt, one of the newest industries in the world. With the first electronic camera being invented in 1981 and the first consumer digital invented in 19951, the digital camera actually traces its roots back to the photography industry. In 1888, with the development of the silver halide film slide and the portable camera by George Eastman2, capturing and recording images has always been popular throughout the history of mankind.

As technology improved, color photos were developed and soon video capture devices were developed that was used to record television images. In 1951, the first video tape recorder was made. It captured live images from television cameras by converting the information into electrical impulses (digital) and saving it to magnetic tape. This was the start of the development of digital cameras. A CCD (Charged Coupled Device) is used in both television/video cameras and digital cameras to sense light color and intensity3.

Digital imaging has since been used by the government in the early 1970s. NASA and the U.S. government both used digital imaging to help the progress of space exploration or spy maneuvers. The private sector also began to deliver the technology to the public. In 1972, Texas Instruments patented a film-less electronic camera. In August, 1981, Sony released the Sony Mavica electronic still camera. It was a camera the recorded the one frozen frame from a video image and then storing the image file to a floppy disc. The recorded images can be displayed on a television monitor or color printer. However, the early Mavica cannot be considered a true digital camera even though it started the digital camera revolution4.

Since the mid-1970s, Kodak has lead the way in inventing and developing several solid-state image sensors that "converted light to digital pictures." In 1986, Kodak scientists invented the world's first megapixel sensor. In 1987, Kodak released seven products for recording, storing, manipulating, transmitting and printing electronic still video images5. In 1990, Kodak developed the Photo CD system that allowed digitized photos to be stored on compact discs6. The first digital cameras for the consumer-level market was the Apple QuickTake 100, the Kodak DC40 camera (March 28, 1995), the Casio QV-11 (with LCD monitor, late 1995), and Sony's Cyber-Shot Digital Still Camera (1996). Since then, the digital camera industry has exploded7.

ECONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS

According to the Photo Market Association International, the digital imaging market is worth approximately $11 billion worldwide8.