Polaroid relaunching instant cameras, film in 2010
It was announced in a press conference in Hong Kong on October 13 that Polaroid will re-launch the legendary Polaroid One Step Camera and is therefore commissioning The Impossible Project to develop and produce a limited edition of Polaroid® branded Instant Films in the middle of 2010.
Polaroid made headlines around the world on February 2008 when, after several years of tumultuous finances brought mainly by a gross miscalculation of digital technology's potential impact on photography, the company decided to phase out its analog instant camera to focus on its digital products.
The brand has come under new management since then and the guys running the show seem to have determined there is a viable niche product to sell among the many nostalgic aficionados who recoiled at the news of the camera's demise.
"We were really ecstatic to see that there was a strong community of enthusiasts that were more than requesting new film - they were demanding it," said Polaroid spokeswoman Lorrie Parent.
Details on how many cameras will be built or how the camera's design will change are pending announcement, but Parent said manufacturing will start some time this year and distribution is scheduled for 2010.
Crucial to the popular camera's comeback was a group of fans, entrepreneurs and former Polaroid employees in the Netherlands who have worked under the name The Impossible Project since last year to design new film products for the analog instant camera.
The company's Web site said they will produce limited edition products under the Polaroid brand next year as well as launch their own film line.
"When a once-successful company finally gives up on a technology, that's not to say that a smaller operation that targets a much smaller market can't bring the product back," said IBISWorld senior analyst George Van Horn. "It says something about modern days when good ideas can still live on in various forms and various stages."
In a hard-to-believe coincidence, news of the instant camera's return came a few days after the last batch of Polaroid film reached its expiration date on Oct. 9.
I think it's great that Polaroid has listened to the customers. Post the best Polaroids you've taken, ONTD.
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