Fujifilm bests Polaroid with an Innovative Instant Camera

​I thought Polaroid was dead—killed by digital photography.  So imagine my surprise about a week ago. I was at a Memorial Day pool party. One of the guests pulled out a cute, colorful, plastic camera with a retro design. It immediately reminded me of the old “Polaroid” cameras my dad, a NYC illustrator used to use all the time. And that's what it was, sort of.

(Left to right) Fujifilm Instax Mini 8; Memorial Day Party; a Fujifilm 'Polaroid' of me at the party.

My friend started taking card-sized photos of people at the party. The photos developed instantly—in vivid colors with great clarity—and a Polaroid-type white border. But the brand clearly printed on the camer as Fujifilm not Polaroid. How did Fujifilm manage to come up with this cute little camera—the Instax Mini 8? I discovered it was based on Kodak (not Polaroid) technology combined with Fujifilm's Zinc printing technology. This model sells for $69.99 from Best Buy, while a somewhat similar instant camera, under the “Polaroid” name (the Polaroid Snap), sells for $99.95 on Amazon. It uses the Polaroid name, but isn't made by Polaroid and doesn't get great reviews.

​I was totally puzzled. How could Fujifilm capture this market--or maybe I should say, reinvent it? What happened to Polaroid and Kodak? How did they lose the battle to become photographic leaders in this new digital world? Was it arrogance? Was it over reliance on branding and marketing? Or did Fujifilm just have more skilled internal people who made better decisions? I’m awaiting answers from my friends and colleagues in the new product development world.